pascolo

Forms

pascolo m (plural pascoli)^[1] The older word was Old Italian pasco, used by Dante and in the Italian version of Marco Polo.^[2][3] The GDLI records an old form Old Italian pasculo.^[4] Old Lombard had asculo, without the initial consonant, as in asch of the Engadine.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pascuum (“pasture”), the noun use of the adjective pascuus (“used for grazing”), which is formed on pascō (“to feed, to pasture”).^[3][7][1] The ending -olo matches Medieval Latin pasculum, recorded at Piove in a document of 1130 that survives in a copy of 1202.^[3][8] Nocentini and Devoto instead see an Italian diminutive of the older pasco, the direct outcome of the Latin word,^[9][10] and the GDLI thinks of the model or influence of Latin pābulum (“fodder”).^[4]

The Latin noun has outcomes and derivatives across western Romance.^[5] It survives as Florentine pasco, in Old Spanish as Spanish pasco, and as Catalan pasco, which there means “breakfast”.^[6] Derivatives of it include French pâquis (“pasture”) and French pacage (“right of grazing”).^[6] The Italian word was borrowed into Friulian as paskul.^[6]

The Latin verb goes back to the root Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect, to herd”), with an enlarged present in ⟨-sk-⟩.^[11][1] De Vaan compares Hittite and Slavic verbs for protecting and pasturing, such as Old Church Slavonic пасти (pasti, “to pasture”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The older Old Italian pasco is found before 1321 in Dante.^[3] The form pascolo is first recorded in the 14th century in the Italian translation of St John Chrysostom, for an expanse of grass where animals graze; the same text already uses it figuratively for spiritual food.^[3][12]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the Ottimo commentary on Dante uses the word for the act of grazing as well as for the place.^[3] Older texts also used it for any meadow or field, and agronomists came to distinguish a continuous pasture, grazed all the year, from a temporary one, used only between crops.^[4]

In law, diritto di pascolo named the right of the inhabitants of a district to send their flocks onto uncultivated land of the state, princes, churches and later the communes, for a yearly fee; it was widespread in the Middle Ages.^[13] Tommaseo records servitù di pascolo e legnatico, a servitude of grazing and wood-gathering.^[14] In modern law pascolo abusivo is the offence of grazing animals on another's land.^[15][13]

Figurative uses grew from the image of food: the word is spiritual or intellectual nourishment, something that feeds ambition or suspicion, and also a field of illicit gain.^[13][16][15] The verb pascolare appears in Medieval Latin at Venice in 1180 and at Verona in 1182, and in Italian before 1411.^[3]

Timeline

• 1130 – Medieval Latin pasculum is recorded at Piove (in a copy of 1202).^[3]
• 1180 – Medieval Latin pasculare is recorded at Venice.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the older pasco.^[3]
• 14th century – Pascolo appears in the Italian translation of St John Chrysostom, and the Ottimo commentary uses it for the act of grazing.^[3]
• Before 1411 – The verb pascolare is first recorded in Italian, in Donato degli Albanzani.^[3][9]
• Before 1751 – Pascolame is recorded in G. Targioni Tozzetti.^[5]
• Before 1931 – Compascolo, common pasture, is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. pasture: land covered with wild grasses that are not mown but grazed directly by livestock: d’estate le vacche salgono ai pascoli alti.^[8][15][13]
2. The grass of such land as fodder: dopo la siccità il pascolo era scarso.^[8][15][17]
3. grazing, the act of grazing or of taking animals to graze: le capre restano al pascolo fino a sera.^[8][18][17]
4. (figurative) Spiritual or intellectual nourishment: la musica era il suo pascolo quotidiano.^[8][18][13]
5. (figurative) A source of illicit gain.^[16][15]

Word family

• pascolare
• compascolo
• pascolame
• sovrappascolo

Related words

• pascere
• Latin pascuum

Usage notes

Dare in pascolo (to the public, to the curious) means to offer something up to gossip, like dare in pasto.^[19][13][15] Pascolo is also the first person singular present of pascolare.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 746
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 726
5. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2788
6. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 3, 809
15. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
18. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
19. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli