pascere

Forms

pascere (first-person singular present pàsco, first-person singular past historic pascétti or (traditional) pascètti or pascéi, past participle pasciùto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pāscere (“to pasture, feed”), from Proto-Italic *pāskō, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect, to shepherd”).^[1][2][3] DELI and Zingarelli label it a learned word, while Nocentini, the GDLI and Meyer-Lübke treat it as a word of the whole Romance area.^{[4][5][2][6][7]}

The verb lives on in French paître, Occitan paiser, Spanish pacer, Portuguese pascer, Sardinian pàschere and Romanian paște, and passed into the Insular Celtic languages as Welsh pesgu.^[2][7][8] Latin used the same verb as a deponent, pāscī (“to graze, feed oneself”).^[9][6]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from an s-present Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-s- (“to protect, herd”), which also gave Hittite paḫš- (“to protect”), enlarged in Latin with the present suffix ⟨-sc-⟩.^[10] The bare root appears in pābulum (“fodder”), and pāstor (“shepherd”) is built on the same s-form; Ancient Greek ποιμήν (poimḗn, “shepherd”) is a further cognate.^[10][2] Nocentini also places pānis (“bread”) with this root.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Bono Giamboni, who died in 1292, for herbivores eating grass.^[4][3] The GDLI quotes him: Le pecore pascono l'erbe in tal modo che sempre rinascono (“sheep graze the grass in such a way that it always grows back”).^[11] The sense “to feed” is already found in the 13th-century legends of the Barberini Exultet roll.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From grazing animals the verb was extended to feeding people: Boccaccio uses it for nourishing human beings around 1336, and the reflexive “to take nourishment” is in Onesto da Bologna before 1303.^[4] Leading a flock to pasture is recorded in Domenico Cavalca before 1342.^[4] Dante has the Harpies “feeding on its leaves” (pascendo poi de le sue foglie, Inferno XIII), and the Gospel command to Peter, pasci le mie pecore (Latin pasce oves meas, John 21), made the verb a word for pastoral care.^[5][12]

The figurative use, feeding the mind or the eyes on something, and the reflexive pascersi di illusioni “to live on illusions” belong to the literary language.^[13][5][14] The participle pasciuto “well fed” is in Iacopone (before 1306), with the northern form passudo in Uguccione da Lodi.^[4] Old and dialect forms of the verb include pàsere, pàssere and Sienese pàsciare.^[11] Today GRADIT marks pascere as literary; everyday Italian says pascolare.^[3][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – The legends of the Barberini Exultet roll use the verb for “to feed”.^[4]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for grazing animals.^[4][3]
• Before 1303 – Onesto da Bologna uses the reflexive “to take nourishment”.^[4]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses pasciuto “well fed”.^[4]
• About 1336 – Boccaccio uses it for feeding people.^[4]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it for leading animals to pasture.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of animals, to graze on grass or leaves; used without an object, to be at pasture.^[3][13][14]
2. To lead animals to pasture and watch over them: pascere le capre.^[3][13][9]
3. (figurative) In Gospel language, to care for the faithful as a shepherd.^[3][13]
4. (literary) To feed, nourish.^[3][13][5]
5. (figurative, literary) To nourish the mind or spirit; to gratify: pascere gli occhi.^[13][5][14]
6. (reflexive, pascersi) To feed on something; figuratively, to live on or delight in something: pascersi di sogni.^[13][5][9]

Word family

• pasciuto
• pascimento
• pascitore
• depascere
• ripascere

Related words

• pascolare
• pascolo
• pasto
• pastore
• pastura
• Latin pāscō

Usage notes

The past historic is pascetti or, less often, pascei; the past participle is pasciuto, with an old form pasto.^[13][14][15] The idioms pascersi d'aria and pascersi di vento mean to live on vain hopes or empty talk.^[5][13] In older Italian the infinitive was also a noun, “pasture”.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2788
9. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
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. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 717
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET