pastura

Forms

pāstūra f (genitive pāstūrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin pāscō (“to feed, graze”) + -tūra,^[2][3] a Late Latin word;^[4][5] Wiktionary derives it from the deponent pāscor (“to graze”).^[1] The TLL relates it to the noun pāstus (“pasture, food”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author to use it is Palladius, at the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th century,^[6][2] in a passage that Lewis and Short take as “pasture” and Conte as “fodder”.^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

Late writers used it for grazing, as Jerome does,^[5] and for the place of grazing, as in Ennodius.^[5]

In Medieval Latin it meant the grazing of animals, the right of pasturage, and pasture land;^[8] it is common in charters from 774 on,^[6] and the Domesday Book records pasture for a given number of oxen or sheep.^[4] It also meant food,^[9] and in Lyon in 1345 fodder for horses.^[9] A Neo-Latin writer used it of the office of a pastor of souls.^[10]

It lives on in Italian, Sardinian, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan pastura, and in French pâture.^[2]

Timeline

• late 4th or early 5th century AD – Palladius uses it.^[6][7]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it for grazing.^[5][6]
• 774 – It appears in charters.^[6]
• 1156 – A charter lists pastures among lands and woods.^[4]
• c. 1300 – Borrowed into English, through Old French, as pasture.^[11]
• 1345 – A record of the chapter of Lyon uses it for horse fodder.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) grazing, feeding of animals.^[5][12][8]
2. (Late Latin) A pasture, grazing ground.^[5][7][4]
3. (Late Latin) Food, fodder.^[5][9]
4. (Medieval Latin, law) The right of pasturage.^[8][6]
5. (New Latin) The office of a pastor.^[10]

Related words

• pascuum
• pastor
• English pasture

Usage notes

The canonist Lyndwood distinguished it from pascua: pastura covers every kind of grazing, whether in meadows, on stubble, in fields or in open country.^[4][9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
10. ^ a b Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.