paste

Pronunciation

• IPA: /peɪst/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English paste, borrowed from Old French paste (“dough, pastry”) (modern French pâte) and directly Late Latin pasta (“pastry cake, paste”),^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, “barley porridge”), from πάσσω (pássō, “to sprinkle”), cognate with Latin quatiō (“to shake”) (see pasta).^[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Moistened flour, dough: about 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne, in Barnhart; about 1300 in Etymonline.^[2][3] It is a surname, Paste, in 1166.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The earliest English sense was pastry, a meaning that pastry took over in the 15th century.^[6] Sweet doughy confections are from 1389–90.^[7] A glue made of flour and water dates from about 1400,^[3][2][6] and any soft moist mixture from about 1600.^[3][7] A heavy glass used to imitate gems is paste by the 1660s,^[3] the clay mixture for earthenware from 1735, and fish paste from 1817.^[7] The verb, to stick with paste, is from the 1560s.^[3][5] Pasteboard is from the 16th century and pasty from the 17th.^[4] In dialects of Scotland and northern and Midland England paste was pie-crust dough.^[8]

Timeline

• 1166 – Paste (surname).^[2]
• c. 1303 – dough.^[2]
• c. 1400 – a glue.^[3]
• 1560s – to paste (verb).^[3]
• 1660s – paste, imitation gems.^[3]
• 1817 – fish paste.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A soft, smooth, thick mixture, such as toothpaste.
2. An adhesive made of flour or starch and water, used especially for paper.
3. Food pounded into a smooth spread, such as fish or meat paste.
4. Dough made with fat, as for pastry.
5. A sweet doughy confection: almond paste.
6. A hard, brilliant glass used to make imitation gems.

Verb

1. To stick with paste, or as if with paste.
2. To cover something by pasting things on it.

Word family

• impaste
• pasteboard
• pastedown
• pasteup
• toothpaste
• prepaste
• unpaste
• paster

Related words

• patty
• pasta
• pastry
• pasty
• pâté
• pastel

Usage notes

Paste, to hit hard (1846), is a separate word, probably an alteration of baste, to beat.^[2][3][5] In Midland and London dialect it meant to thrash or to strike in the face.^[8]

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 e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)