pascuus

Forms

pāscuus (feminine pāscua, neuter pāscuum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin pāscō (“to feed, pasture”) + -uus.^[2][3][1] De Vaan lists it, from Plautus on, among the derivatives of the verb,^[4] which goes back to Proto-Italic *pā̆ske/o- and Proto-Indo-European *p(e)h₂-sk-e/o-, an enlarged form of *peh₂-s- (“to protect, herd”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus (c. 250–184 BC)^[5] has it in the Truculentus, where a courtesan's maid tells a lover, with an obscene double sense: non arvos hic, sed pascuost ager, “this field is not for ploughing but for grazing”.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The adjective was mostly used of land: ager pascuus, pasture land, which Cicero sets beside ploughland and orchards, and Lucretius applies it to country land.^[6][3] More often the neuter was used as a noun, pāscuum and above all the plural pāscua, “pastures”.^[6] Pliny the Elder records that in the censors' records all public land yielding revenue was still called pāscua, because grazing had long been the only source of revenue.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a field for grazing.^[3][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of country land.^[6][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero sets pasture land beside ploughland and orchards.^[6][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder explains the censors' term pāscua.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Used or suitable for pasture, for grazing.^[2][6]

Word family

• pāscua
• pāscuum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press