Taken into English directly from the Italian, without change of spelling or meaning, the word stucco seems originally to have come from a Teutonic rather than a Romance background.
Specifically, the Italians apparently adopted the Old High German stucchi or stukki, one of the meanings of which was “crust,” although the more common meaning was “piece, fragment.”
Stucco has been taken back into modern German with the spelling changed to Stuck, whereas the original German stucchi has also lived with the spelling modified to Stuck, but with the meaning “piece” retained.
