pasta

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈpæs.tə/, US /ˈpɑː.stə/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian pasta (“paste, dough”),^[2][3][4][5] from Late Latin pasta (“dough, pastry cake, paste”) (see paste),^[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, “barley porridge”), probably first a salted mess of food, from an adjective meaning sprinkled or salted, from πάσσω (pássō, “to sprinkle”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *kwet- (“to shake”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Italian dough foods: 1673 in the OED, 1827 in Merriam-Webster, 1874 in Barnhart and Etymonline, where it is an Italian word in a book about Rome.^[6][4][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word was not common in English until after the Second World War.^[3]

Timeline

• 1673 – pasta.^[6]
• 1874 – an Italian word in a book about Rome.^[2]
• after 1945 – in common use.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A dough of wheat flour and water, often with egg, shaped into forms such as spaghetti or macaroni and boiled.
2. A dish made mainly of pasta.

Related words

• paste
• patty
• pastry
• pâté
• pastiche

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press