Etymologically
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pausa

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpau̯.sa][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpaːu̯.sa][1]

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

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