pasar

Forms

pasar (first-person singular present paso, first-person singular preterite pasé, past participle pasado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish passar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *passāre, a verb formed from Latin passus (“step, pace”).^[2][1][3][4] This spelling with ⟨ss⟩ is the usual one from the Cantar de mio Cid to Covarrubias and the Autoridades.^[5][6][7] The Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 derived the verb from paso; the DLE now gives the Vulgar Latin verb.^[8][2]

The same verb is Portuguese passar, Galician pasar, Catalan passar, Old Occitan pasar, French passer and Italian passare.^[9][3]

The noun belongs with the verb pandō (“to spread out, extend”): the step was seen as a spreading of the legs.^[10][11] De Vaan reconstructs the verb as Proto-Indo-European *pt-n(é)-h₂- (“to spread”);^[10] Wiktionary gives the root as *peth₂-, which is also the source of English fathom.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) uses it for crossing a river: „salió por la puerta e Arlançón passava” “he went out through the gate and crossed the Arlanzón”.^[5][4] A Latin legal fragment of 1182 already has the Romance infinitive pasar: „et si pasar pectet x morabetinos”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has “to carry from one place to another”, “to move to another place or class”, “to cross” and “to go beyond a limit”.^[12] The Liber regum (c. 1200) uses the participle of time: despues quel diluuio fo passado “after the flood was over”.^[5] Covarrubias defined it as crossing from one place to another, with Latin passus or perhaps a Hebrew verb as its source; he quoted the proverb remienda tu sayo y pasarás tu año and the university sense of a new bachelor going over his studies, whence pasante.^[6] In Cervantes it also means “to happen” and “to pierce through”.^[13]

The DLE lists dozens of senses, from “to carry” and “to cross” to “to strain, sieve”.^[2] Latin American uses include “to put up with someone” in many countries and “to pass an exam”;^[14][1] in the United States pasar una ley “to pass a law” follows English.^[15] In 1855 Baralt condemned reflexive uses such as pasarse de “to do without” as Gallicisms.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid: Arlançón passava.^[5][4]
• 1182 – the Romance pasar in a Latin legal fragment.^[5]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar: barones que passavan por la carrera “men who were passing along the road”.^[5]
• 1220–1250 – the derivatives pasada, pasamiento and compasar are first recorded.^[4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses passar for crossing the sea.^[12]
• 1490 – pasatiempo is first recorded.^[4]
• 1516 – the first record from the Americas, in Darién.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb remienda tu sayo y pasarás tu año.^[6]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from paso.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To carry or take from one place to another.^[2]
2. (transitive, also intransitive and reflexive) To move to another place, situation or class: Pasó a segundo curso.^[2]
3. (transitive, also intransitive) To cross from one side to the other: pasar un puente.^[2]
4. (transitive) To send or hand on: Pásame la sal.^[2][1]
5. (transitive) To go beyond a point or limit: pasar la meta.^[2]
6. (transitive) To pierce, to go through.^[2]
7. (transitive) To smuggle goods.^[2]
8. (transitive, also reflexive) To exceed, surpass; reflexive, to go too far: Esta vez te has pasado.^[2][1]
9. (transitive) To suffer, to endure.^[2][1]
10. (transitive) To run something over a surface: pasar un trapo por la mesa.^[2]
11. (transitive) To strain or sieve.^[2][1]
12. (intransitive) To happen: ¿Qué pasa aquí?^[1]
13. Of time, to pass; transitive, to spend time: Pasamos el verano en la costa.^[1]
14. (intransitive) To come in, to enter a room: Pase, por favor.^[1]
15. (reflexive) Of food, to go off or become overripe.^[1]
16. (Latin America) To pass an exam.^[1]

Word family

• pasada
• pasadizo
• pasado
• pasador
• pasajero
• pasamano
• pasamontañas
• pasante
• pasapurés
• pasatiempo
• pase
• antepasado
• compasar
• propasarse
• repasar
• traspasar

Related words

• pasa
• paso
• pasear
• Latin passus
• Portuguese passar

Usage notes

Lo pasado, pasado urges someone to forget a grievance as if it had never happened.^[18] In the Canaries pasar means to dry fruit in the sun and air, as in higos pasados “dried figs”.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. pasar
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *passare
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. paso
5. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pasar
6. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1197
7. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 148
8. ^ a b 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
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. *passare
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pas
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. pasar
13. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. s.v. pasar
14. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pasar
15. ^ Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 76
16. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 502
17. ^ 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. pasar
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. pasar
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. pasar