paso

Forms

paso m (plural pasos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin passus (“step, pace”), written Old Spanish passo in the old language.^[2][3][1][4] Covarrubias and the Diccionario de Autoridades still wrote ⟨passo⟩.^[5][6] The same Latin word is Portuguese passo, Catalan pas, French pas, Italian passo and Romanian pas.^[4][7] In French and Catalan it also became a reinforcement of the negation.^[7][8]

Latin passus, a noun of the fourth declension, was formed from the past participle of pandō (“to spread out, extend”), from the spreading of the legs in walking.^[9][10][1] Wiktionary takes it back through Proto-Italic *pat-s-tus to Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread”), and compares English fathom.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs the verb as a nasal present *pt-n(é)-h₂- and compares Ancient Greek πίτνημι (pítnēmi, “to spread out”).^[9] The verb pasar is a separate formation of Vulgar Latin from the same noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word 1220–1250.^[2] In the CDH the earliest examples are measures: the Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223) speaks of a height of „quatro mill pasos”, and the Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) orders that a stake be set „fasta IX pasos entre el un molino et el otro” “up to nine paces between the one mill and the other”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose passo already meant the step of the foot, the Roman measure of five feet and a place where one passes, as in a mountain or river crossing;^[12] a passo meant “slowly”.^[12] Corominas dates the sense “act of passing” from 1335.^[2] Covarrubias gave passo a passo “little by little”, andar en malos passos, the passo de garganta of singers, aves de passo “birds of passage” and dar passo “to let through”.^[5]

The Academy's 1843 edition added the easy walk of mules and horses, with one foot raised and three on the ground.^[13] Today the word also names a short comic play, such as those of Lope de Rueda, a figure or group carried in the Holy Week processions, and a step of a dance or of a procedure.^[3][14][1] In Chile and Puerto Rico, and in the Dominican Republic, paso is a ford.^[15][16]

Timeline

• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo measures heights in pasos.^[11]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita measures the distance between mills in pasos.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – Corominas's first record.^[2]
• 1254 – the prose of Alfonso X speaks of long passos in walking.^[12]
• 1283 – a passo “slowly” in the same prose.^[12]
• 1335 – the sense “act of passing; place of passage”, according to Corominas.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin passus.^[17]
• 1529 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines passo as a space of three feet.^[5]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. passus”.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. A step: each movement of the feet in walking: Dio tres pasos hacia la puerta.^[3][1]
2. The distance covered in one step; a pace, also as an old measure of length.^[3][1]
3. The way or speed of walking: Caminaba con paso lento.^[3]
4. The walk of a horse or other animal, lifting its feet one by one without any leap.^[3]
5. The act of passing: el paso del tiempo.^[3]
6. A place where one passes from one side to another; a mountain pass.^[3][1]
7. A footprint.^[3]
8. A step or figure of a dance.^[3]
9. A permit to pass freely.^[3]
10. (usually in the plural) A step taken to obtain something: Ya ha dado los primeros pasos para abrir la tienda.^[3][1]
11. (theatre) A short comic play.^[3]
12. A sculpted figure or group from the Passion carried in the processions of Holy Week.^[1][14]
13. (mechanics) The pitch of a screw thread.^[1]
14. (Chile, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic) A ford.^[15][16]

Word family

• pasear
• pasillo
• pasito
• compasar
• marcapasos

Related words

• pasar
• pasaje
• pasa
• Latin passus
• Portuguese passo
• Catalan pas

Usage notes

The adjective paso “dried”, said of fruit (higo paso, and the feminine in uva pasa), comes from Latin passus (“spread out”), the past participle of pandō, because the fruit was spread in the sun to dry.^[20][21][1] An old adverb paso meant “softly, in a low voice”: Covarrubias explains hablar passo as hablar quedo.^[5][22] Common set phrases are paso a paso, de paso “in passing”, ceder el paso and paso de cebra “zebra crossing”.^[1]

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 Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. paso
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4836
5. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1197
6. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 154
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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, 323
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pas
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. paso
12. ^ a b c d 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. paso
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 538
14. ^ a b 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
15. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 418
16. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. paso
17. ^ 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. paso
18. ^ 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. paso
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 797
20. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. paso
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. paso
22. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 539