pasa

Forms

pasa f (plural pasas)^[1] Aragonese has pansa, recorded in the Leyes de Moros of the 14th or 15th century and in a tariff of 1436, and still in use throughout Aragon.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin passa (“spread out, dried”), short for ūva passa (“raisin, literally “spread grape””).^[2][3][1][4] The Latin word is the feminine of passus (“spread out; dry, wrinkled”), the past participle of pandō (“to spread out”), used especially of grapes spread out in the air to dry.^[2][5][6] The same word is Portuguese passa and, with the participle pansus that Latin had beside it, Catalan pansa and Occitan pansa.^[7][2][8] Corominas explains the Aragonese and Catalan ⟨ns⟩ by this Latin variant, rejecting Griera's idea of a false regression from the Castilian form.^[2]

The Latin verb goes back to *peth₂- (“to spread out”); de Vaan reconstructs a nasal present, with the cognate πίτνημι (pítnēmi, “to spread out”).^[5][1] The Latin word for “grape” is from *oiwā, a tree name that de Vaan suspects was borrowed from a non-Indo-European language.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's earliest records of the word in a text are the plural pasas in the Bocados de oro and the Donzella Teodor, both dated about 1250; a secondary source cites it from an Aragonese customs tariff dated between 1222 and 1365.^[9] Corominas's first record is the Glosario de Palacio, about 1400.^[2][3] Nebrija gives passa, uva passada for Latin uva passa.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

From the same participle Spanish has the adjective paso “dried”, in higo paso and vino paso, and an old adverb paso “gently, softly”, first recorded in 1251, whose diminutive pasito is in the Quixote.^[2][3] Autoridades recorded the raisins named after their places of origin, such as passas de Corintho in a price decree of 1680, and two figurative senses: a cosmetic made with raisins, and the short, tightly curled hair of Black people, so called for its likeness to the wrinkled fruit.^[11] From that sense Cuban Spanish formed pasudo “curly-haired”.^[2] Puerto Rican documents of 1859 and 1872 already use pasa for hair.^[12]

The Academy's dictionary of 1884 derived the word from pasar, and its 1899 edition from uva passa explained as “a grape that has suffered”.^[13][14] Today the DLE treats the noun under the adjective paso.^[6] In Guatemala pasa is also a chili pepper dried in the sun.^[15] Judeo-Spanish has pasa “raisin”.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – pasas in the Bocados de oro and the Donzella Teodor.^[9]
• 1251 – the related adverb paso “gently” in the Calila e Dimna.^[2]
• c. 1400 – the Glosario de Palacio, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1436 – Aragonese pansa in a tariff.^[2]
• 1494 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo: pasas, azúcar, almendras, miel e arroz.^[17]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: passa, uva passada.^[2][10]
• 1680 – passas de Corintho in a price decree quoted by Autoridades.^[11]
• 1737 – Autoridades records the senses “cosmetic” and “curly hair”.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary first derives it from Latin uva passa.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A raisin: a grape dried on the vine, in the sun or by boiling in lye: un bizcocho con pasas.^[6][1]
2. (historical) A cosmetic once used by women, made with raisins.^[6][11]
3. (usually in the plural) Each lock of short, tightly curled hair of Black people.^[6][12]
4. (Guatemala) A variety of chili dried in the sun and used as a seasoning.^[15]

Related words

• paso
• uva
• Latin pandō
• Portuguese passa
• Catalan pansa

Usage notes

After the name of a fruit pasa marks it as dried: uva pasa, ciruela pasa.^[6][17] Set phrases include pasa de Corinto, a small seedless raisin, and estar hecho una pasa “to be shrivelled and wrinkled”.^[18][19] A nautical pasa “channel between shoals through which ships can pass” has a separate source: it is formed from pasar, as is the old falconry term for the passage of migrating birds.^[20][18][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 417
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pasa
4. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pasa
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. paso
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. passa
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 6, 230
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. pasa
10. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. pasa
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 145
12. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. pasa
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 795
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 746
15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pasa
16. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. pâsa
17. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. pasa
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pasa
19. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 527
20. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. pasa