pasta

Forms

pasta f (plural pastas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin pasta (“dough, paste”).^[2][1][3] Lewis & Short find the Latin word in Marcellus Empiricus, as an equivalent of the Greek.^[4] Wiktionary and the DLE derive it from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, “porridge”), the neuter plural of παστός (pastós, “sprinkled (with salt)”), from πάσσω (pássō, “to sprinkle”).^[1][5] Corominas and Aurélio give the Greek word as πάστη (pástē) “flour mixed with sauce”, from the verb in its Attic form πάττω (páttō, “to pour, strew”).^[6][7] Wiktionary takes the verb back to Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₁t- (“to shake”), while the DHLF calls it of obscure origin.^[1][8]

The same Latin word is Galician pasta, Spanish pasta, Catalan pasta, Italian pasta and French pâte.^[9][1] Corominas notes that it is common to all the western Romance languages.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 15th century, from the slips of Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, without quoting the text; his first sense is that of the Latin, a mass of solid matter kneaded with a liquid.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the early 18th century Bluteau enters pasta as the case in which a student carries his notes and papers, the sense Houaiss dates to about 1720.^[10][2] Folqman (1755) has both that case and pasta de chumbo “a mass of lead”.^[11] Morais (1789) describes the case as pasteboard folded like a sheet of paper and covered with leather, used to take papers to school, to the courts and to offices, and adds the senses “flat plate of metal or glass” and “flat lump of dough or lead”.^[12] Vieira (1871–1874) has the pulp of rags for making paper and the mass of gold or silver melted but not yet worked.^[13]

From the case for official papers came the sense “office of a minister of state”, in Silva Bastos's dictionary of 1912.^[14][2] In Portugal a pasta was also the insignia of fifth-year university students.^[15] Recent senses are the computer folder and, in informal European Portuguese, “money”.^[2][16][1] In Ceará the word names the water lettuce, Pistia stratiotes.^[2][17] Hunsrik, the German of southern Brazil, has borrowed it as Pasda.^[1]

Timeline

• 15th century – first record, according to Houaiss.^[2]
• c. 1720 – Bluteau records the student's case for papers.^[10][2]
• 1755 – Folqman lists pasta de chumbo.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais describes the leather-covered pasteboard case, and plates of metal or glass.^[12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records paper pulp and unworked metal.^[13]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the sense “office of a minister”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A paste: a soft, plastic mass of a solid substance kneaded or mixed with a liquid or fat: uma pasta de farinha e água.^[2][7][1]
2. A food or cosmetic preparation of that consistency.^[2][15] pasta de dentes toothpaste.^[2][15]
3. (papermaking) pulp, the mass of fibres from which paper is made.^[2][16]
4. A mass of metal melted but not yet worked: ouro em pasta.^[2][18]
5. (bookbinding) The pasteboard that forms each side of a book cover.^[2]
6. A folder for keeping papers.^[2][19][1]
7. A briefcase or flat bag for carrying books and documents.^[2][16][1]
8. (politics) A minister's portfolio; a ministry.^[2][18][1]
9. (computing) A folder, a directory of files.^[2][18][1]
10. (Portugal, informal) money.^[2][16][1]
11. (Ceará) The water lettuce, an aquatic plant.^[2][17]

Word family

• pastoso
• pasta de dentes

Related words

• massa
• Spanish pasta

Usage notes

A ministro sem pasta is a minister without a department.^[18] Passar a pasta means to hand a job over to someone else, and ter muita pasta (informal) “to have a lot of money”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pasta
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pasta
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. pasta
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 421
7. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pasta
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pâte
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6272
10. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pasta
11. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pasta
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 168
13. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 699
14. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. pasta
15. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. pasta
16. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6955
17. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. pasta
18. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pasta
19. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. pasta