pausa

Forms

pausa f (genitive pausae); first declension^[1] Also spelled paussa.^[2] A neuter pausum is found in an inscription.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis, “a stopping, cessation”) according to L&S, Köbler and Wiktionary,^[4][5][1] a noun from παύω (paúō, “to stop, make cease”);^[5][6] the OLD only compares the Greek noun.^[2] The TLL, noting that the form does not match the Greek, prefers to see it as a back-formation from the verb pausō (“to halt, cease”), although that verb is not securely attested before the 4th century.^[7] Beekes finds no certain cognates of the Greek verb outside Greek.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has ego pausam fēcī “I have stopped”,^[2] and Köbler records it in Ennius.^[5]

Semantic evolution

L&S notes that it belongs to early and post-classical Latin, where the classical language had quiēs or fīnis.^[4] It is used mostly in the phrases pausam facere and pausam dare, to stop or to put an end to something, from Plautus, Ennius and Lucilius to Gellius and Apuleius;^[2][4] Lucretius speaks of the end of life as a pausa.^[2][4]

In the language of the cult of Isis, pausae were the stations at which a procession halted.^[4][3] Medieval Latin used it for rest and for a tomb.^[9] English pause (early 15th century) comes partly through Old French and partly directly from Latin pausa.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses pausam facere “to stop”.^[2][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius says that Neptune put a stop to the rough waves.^[2][4][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it for the end of life.^[4][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of a pause in drinking snow-water.^[2][5]
• early 15th century – English pause is formed from it, partly through Old French.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pause, halt, cessation, respite.^[2][4]
2. pausam facere, pausam dare: to stop, call a halt (to).^[2]
3. (religion) A station at which a procession of Isis halted.^[4][3]
4. (Medieval Latin) Rest.^[9]
5. (Medieval Latin) A tomb.^[9]

Word family

• expausatus
• pausārius
• pausō

Related words

• English pause

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill