paschalis

Forms

paschālis (neuter paschāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] It is often written pascalis in the manuscripts.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin pascha + -ālis.^[1][3][2] The noun pascha (“Passover, Easter”) comes from Ancient Greek πάσχα (páskha), from Aramaic פַּסְחָא (pasḥā), from Biblical Hebrew פֶּסַח (pésaḥ).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author in the TLL's record is Egeria, whose account of her pilgrimage (381–384) speaks of the dies paschales, the days of Easter.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Christian Latin it was used of Easter and of the Passion, and of the Jewish Passover when Jewish rites were described.^[2] It went with words of time (dies paschales, septimana, vigiliae) and of feast (sollemnitas, festivitas).^[2] The Theodosian Code speaks of the paschale tempus, and Jerome of a liber paschalis, a book on the date of Easter.^[3] In the Middle Ages it covered Easter, Easter week and the Lent before it;^[4] agnus paschalis was the paschal lamb, and the word was used by itself as a noun for Easter Day and as a personal name.^[5] English took it over as paschal.^[6]

Timeline

• 381–384 AD – Egeria writes of the dies paschales.^[2]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Sedulius speaks of the paschal feast (dapes).^[3][7]
• early 15th century – Borrowed into English as paschal.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the Passover.^[3][5]
2. Of Easter, paschal.^[3][8]
3. (Medieval Latin) Of Easter week or of the Lent before Easter.^[4]
4. (Medieval Latin, as a noun) Easter Day, Eastertide.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson