patio

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish patio (“courtyard”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in Spanish in that sense since 1414, and as a building plot since 1397 or earlier.^[2] The Old Spanish word could also mean untilled land and a courtyard enclosed by columns.^[5] Its further origin is uncertain and disputed.^[2] The OED derives it either from Catalan pati (“courtyard”), recorded from 1381–86 and as a building plot from 1207 or earlier, or from Old Occitan pati (“uncultivated land, common grazing”), also patu, from about 1150.^[2] Etymonline, Barnhart, the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster take the Old Provençal word as the probable source,^[3][4][7][5] perhaps from Latin pactum (“agreement, contract”),^[7][5][4][3] the noun use of the neuter past participle of pacīscor (“to agree, make a treaty”), which Watkins derives from Proto-Indo-European *pag- (“to fasten”).^[3] Another theory, held by Klein and Weekley, traces it to Latin pateō (“to lie open”),^[3][8][9] and Dictionary.com compares Medieval Latin patium (“meadow, pasturage”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A roofless inner courtyard open to the sky in a Spanish or Mexican house: 1764.^[2][5] Etymonline dates the word to 1818,^[3] and Barnhart to 1828, in Washington Irving's Life and Letters, as an American word.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, a paved area next to a house, used especially as a garden terrace, is first recorded in a letter by P. G. Wodehouse in 1931;^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline found it first in Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run? (1941).^[4][3] Etymonline also notes patio furniture in Californian newspaper advertisements from 1924 and patio door by 1929.^[3] In mining and metallurgy, from 1845, a patio is a yard or floor where ores are cleaned, sorted or amalgamated, as in the patio process.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1764 – an inner courtyard in a Spanish house.^[2][5]
• 1828 – in Washington Irving.^[4]
• 1845 – in mining, a yard where ores are treated.^[2]
• 1924 – patio furniture.^[3]
• 1931 – a paved area adjoining a house.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A paved outdoor area next to a house, used for eating or relaxing: We ate supper out on the patio.^[6][5][2]
2. An inner courtyard open to the sky, especially in a Spanish or Spanish-American house.^[6][5][2]
3. (mining) A yard or floor where ores are cleaned, sorted or amalgamated.^[2][11][5]

Related words

• pact
• patent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press