pascua

Forms

pascua f (plural pascuas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote pasqua most often, and also pascua, pascoa, paschoa, pasca and pascha.^[2] Berceo also has pascor “Eastertide”, taken from Occitan.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin pascua, an altered form of pascha (“Passover, Easter”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek πάσχα (páskha, “Passover”), from Aramaic פַּסְחָא (pasḥā), from Biblical Hebrew פֶּסַח (pésaḥ), properly “passage, passing”, the feast that commemorated the Exodus.^[3][1][6]

The ending -ua comes from a confusion with pāscuum (“pasture, fodder”), whose plural had that form, helped by the end of the Lenten fast at Easter.^[3][5][4] A Latin glossary already has this form, and the two forms of the Latin adjective for pastures, pascuālis and pascālis, made the confusion easier.^[3] A kharja in Mozarabic has the form paska.^[3]

The same Latin form is behind Portuguese páscoa, Catalan pasqua, Italian pasqua, Occitan pasca and French pâque.^[7][3] The Basque form is bazko.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A charter of 1090 is Corominas's first record.^[3][4] The CDH's first hit, the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), speaks of La pascua de los Judios “the Passover of the Jews”, and the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) names the dia de pascua de resurrecçion “Easter Day” among the holidays.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word named the Jewish feast and the Christian feasts alike.^[5][10] Berceo calls Easter Pascua cabdal, Pascua cabdalera and Pascua mayor.^[3] Alfonso X's laws require every Christian to make an offering at least at the three pascuas: Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.^[10] Nebrija distinguishes the Easter pascua from that of Pentecost.^[3]

The name Pascua or Pascuas for Christmas is not found in the other Romance languages, not even in Portuguese and Catalan, and it is more popular in Spanish than Navidad.^[3] Oudin, Minsheu and Ulloa record it in the 17th century.^[3] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1737) explains Pascua Florida by the beginning of spring.^[11] Phrases include estar como unas pascuas “to be very cheerful”, de Pascuas a Ramos “once in a blue moon” and hacer la pascua “to annoy”.^[5][12]

In Mexico the pascua is the poinsettia (nochebuena), named for its flowering at Christmas.^[13][1] In Chile the Pascua de los negros is Epiphany.^[14] Through Spanish the word reached the Philippines, as Tagalog Pasko, and Quechua, as Quechua Paskwa.^[1]

Timeline

• 1090 – a charter, Corominas's first record.^[3][4]
• before 1145 – Mozarabic paska in a kharja.^[3]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) has the Passover of the Jews.^[9]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes names Easter Day.^[9]
• 1228–1246 – Berceo calls Easter Pascua cabdalera.^[9][3]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's laws name the three pascuas of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.^[10]
• 1529 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[15]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “Easter, any feast”.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from the Hebrew word for “passage”.^[17]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records Pascua Florida.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Greek and Hebrew etymology.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Judaism) Passover, the chief feast of the Hebrews, held in the middle of the March moon in memory of their freedom from captivity in Egypt.^[5][1]
2. (Christianity) Easter, the feast of the Resurrection: Pasaremos la Pascua en el pueblo.^[5][1]
3. Each of the feasts of the birth of Christ, of the Epiphany and of Pentecost (Pentecostés).^[5]
4. (plural) The time from Christmas to Epiphany inclusive.^[5][1]
5. (Mexico) The poinsettia.^[13]

Word family

• pascual
• pascuero
• pascuilla

Related words

• Latin pascha
• Portuguese páscoa
• Catalan pasqua

Usage notes

In the senses of the feasts the word is usually capitalised: Pascua de Resurrección, also Pascua Florida or Pascua de Flores, is Easter.^[19][5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. pascua
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 418
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pascua
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. pascua
6. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. páscoa
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6264
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 539
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pascua
10. ^ a b c 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. pascua
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 144
12. ^ 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. 543
13. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 416
14. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pascua
15. ^ 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. páscoa
16. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 185
17. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1197
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 796
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pascua