Etymologically
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passata

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Pronunciation

  • /pasˈsa.ta/[1]

Forms

passata f (plural passate)[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian passare + -ata,[2][3][1] or, as Devoto and Treccani describe it, the feminine past participle of the verb used as a noun.[4][5] The verb comes from Vulgar Latin *passāre, from Latin passus (“step”).[6][7]

Two old senses came from French passade: “a fleeting love affair” and a figure of the riding school, which DEI says also came through English.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Boccaccio (1353), in the sense “the act of passing”;[6][2] GRADIT dates the word to 1348–1353.[6][2] In the Decameron a lover incominciò a far le passate dinanzi alla casa di costei, “began to walk to and fro in front of her house”.[9][10]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th and 16th centuries passata was especially the passage of an army through a country, and the coming of foreign armies into Italy: Guicciardini writes of the time when people most feared la passata dei Francesi.[11][10][12] Distillers spoke of brandy di prima passata, that had passed through the still once.[10]

Fencing took it for a dodge made by ducking (1609), riding for a slow cadenced gait (second half of the 16th century), and card games for the stake set at the start (1804).[13] Hunting used it for the passage of game from 1827–1831, and in 1835 Giusti used it for a quick glance or reading; a quick going-over of a surface is recorded in Magalotti before 1712.[6] The kitchen senses are recent: a quick browning in the pan is in the Zingarelli dictionary of 1970, and passata as tomato purée sold in jars or bottles is in the 2009 supplement of GDLI.[6][11]

Timeline

  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses passata for “passing”.[6][2]
  • Second half of the 16th century – It is a term of the riding school.[13]
  • 1609 – It is recorded as a dodge in fencing.[13]
  • Before 1712 – Magalotti uses it for a quick going-over of a surface.[6]
  • 1827–1831 – It is used for the passage of game.[6]
  • 1835 – Giusti uses it for a quick reading.[6]
  • 1970 – The sense “quick browning” is recorded.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A quick going-over of a surface: a wipe, a coat of paint or polish, a quick ironing: Il tavolo ha bisogno di una passata di cera.[2][14][3]
  2. A quick reading, a glance: Ho dato solo una passata agli appunti prima dell'esame.[2][3][9][1]
  3. (cooking) A quick browning in the pan.[2][14][9]
  4. (cooking) passata, tomato purée, usually sold in bottles or jars: Per il sugo serve una bottiglia di passata.[2][14][1]
  5. (cooking) A purée soup of vegetables or pulses.[14][3][9]
  6. A brief spell of something: a shower of rain, a fit of anger.[3][9][5]
  7. (hunting) The passage of game; the place where it passes; a system of nets for catching birds there.[3][5][12]
  8. (engineering) A pass of a machine tool over the piece being worked.[2][14][5]
  9. (sport) In fencing, a dodge; in riding, a passade.[2][3][13]

Word family

  • passatina
  • passatella

Usage notes

Di passata means “in passing”, briefly.[9][5][12] Most of the everyday senses occur in the phrase dare una passata (di vernice, al giornale, in padella).[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2792
  9. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  12. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  14. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier