stencil

English

Stencil

Etymology

Likely a nominalization of Middle English stencellen (“to garnish with bright hues”), borrowed from Middle French estinceller (“to glisten”), from Old French estenceler (“to spark”), from Old French estencele (“spark”), from Vulgar Latin *stincilla, from metathesis of Latin scintilla (“spark”).

The verb is from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈstɛnsɪl/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈstɛnsəl/
• Rhymes: -ɛnsəl

Noun

stencil (plural stencils)

1. A thin sheet, either perforated or using some other technique, with which a pattern may be produced upon a surface.
2. A utensil that contains a perforated sheet through which ink can be forced to create a printed pattern on a surface.
3. A pattern produced using such a utensil.
4. A two-ply master sheet for use with a mimeograph.

Derived terms

• stencil art
• stencil buffer
• stencil duplicator

Translations

thin sheet

• Bulgarian: шаблон (bg) (šablon)
• Czech: šablona (cs) f
• Dutch: sjabloon (nl) c or n
• Finnish: stensiili

• German: Schablone (de) f
• Romanian: șablon (ro) n
• Slovak: šablóna f
• Vietnamese: giấy xtăngxin

utensil

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: шаблон (bg) m (šablon)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 漏字版 (lòuzìbǎn)

• Czech: šablona (cs) f
• Dutch: sjabloon (nl) c or n
• Finnish: kaavain, malline (fi), kaavalevy, luotta (fi), sabloni, sapluuna (fi)
• French: pochoir (fr)
• Georgian: შაბლონი (šabloni), ტრაფარეტი (ṭrapareṭi)
• German: Schablone (de) f
• Indonesian: stensil (id)
• Italian: normografo (it) m
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 스텐실 (seutensil)

• Latin: lamina interrasilis f
• Latvian: trafarets m
• Malay: stensil
• Maori: tahua
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sjablong m

  Nynorsk: sjablong m

• Polish: szablon (pl) m
• Portuguese: estêncil (pt) m, régua vazada f
• Russian: трафаре́т (ru) (trafarét)
• Slovak: šablóna f
• Spanish: estarcido (es) m, esténcil m
• Swedish: schablon (sv) c
• Tagalog: panlimwad
• Vietnamese: khuôn tô, mẫu tô

master sheet for mimeograph

• Finnish: vahas

See also

• pochoir

Verb

stencil (third-person singular simple present stencils, present participle (UK) stencilling or (US) stenciling, simple past and past participle (UK) stencilled or (US) stenciled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To print with a stencil.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “stencil”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

• Stencils on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• clients, lectins, scilent