passato Italian · revision 37660

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=before 1292, Bono Giamboni|origins=la passus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /pasˈsa.to/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''passato''' (feminine passata, masculine plural passati, feminine plural passate). As a noun, ''m'' (plural passati).^(Wiktionary)

+ An old form is [[roa-oit|pasado]].^(GDLI|12, 752)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is the past participle of [[passare]] “to pass”, used as an adjective and, from the 14th century, as a noun.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Wiktionary) The verb continues [[la-vul|*passō|alt=*passāre]], a verb formed in spoken Latin on [[m|la|passus|t=step, pace]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ The grammatical term, as in ⟨passato prossimo⟩ and ⟨passato remoto⟩, belongs to the 16th century, and DEI compares the French names of the tenses, [[fr|passé défini]] and [[m|fr|passé indéfini]].^(DEI|2793)^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ DELI's first record is in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, with the sense “gone by, past”.^(DELI 1999) GDLI quotes him: “Dice di recarsi a memoria li anni passati” (he says one should call to mind the years gone by).^(GDLI|12, 752) Devoto–Oli and Nocentini date the word to the first half of the 14th century, Sabatini–Coletti to the 13th.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Nocentini 2010)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ As a noun, “the time gone by”, it is first recorded in Boccaccio in 1353, and in Bembo's grammar of 1525 as the name of a tense.^(DELI 1999)^(DEI|2793) Old Italian also used the participle for the dead: GRADIT quotes Boccaccio, “traevano delle lor case li corpi de' già passati” (they carried the bodies of those already dead out of their houses), a sense now literary.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ The food sense, a purée of vegetables or other food pressed through a sieve, is recorded from 1870 and was at first Tuscan: Panzini wrote in 1908 that it was not used outside Tuscany.^(DELI 1999) Pellegrino Artusi complained in 1891 that, to be understood, he would have to call his ''passato di patate'' a ''purée''.^(Cortelazzo & Marcato 1998|373) From the participle's sense “past its best” come uses such as ''frutta passata'', overripe fruit, and ''bellezza passata'', faded beauty.^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Treccani 2011) The idiom ''acqua passata'', something over and done with, is the short form of the proverb ''acqua passata non macina più'' (water that has gone by turns no more mills).^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni writes of ''li anni passati''.^(DELI 1999)^(GDLI|12, 752)

+ * 1353 – Boccaccio uses ''il passato'' for the time gone by.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1525 – Pietro Bembo uses the word for a tense of the verb.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1870 – ''Passato'' “purée” is recorded in Fanfani.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1891 – Artusi notes that ''purée'' is more widely understood than ''passato''.^(Cortelazzo & Marcato 1998|373)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # [[m|en|past]], gone by, earlier than the present: ''Nei secoli passati qui c'era un lago.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # [[m|en|last]], just ended (placed after the noun): ''Il mese passato ha piovuto ogni giorno.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # No longer current, out of [[m|en|fashion]]: ''un modo di vestire ormai passato''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # Past its best: no longer fresh, overripe or overcooked; also, of beauty, faded: ''Queste pesche sono un po' passate.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # Of a person, who held a post before someone else: ''i passati presidenti dell'associazione''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+ # ''(literary, archaic)'' [[m|en|dead]].^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # The time gone by and what happened in it, the past; also a person's earlier life: ''Non parla mai del suo passato.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # ''(grammar)'' A [[m|en|past tense]], as in ''passato prossimo'' and ''passato remoto''.^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(cooking)'' A [[m|en|purée]] of vegetables or other food pressed through a sieve, or a soup made from it: ''passato di verdure''.^(DELI 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(literary, in the plural)'' Forebears, the people of earlier ages.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[passatista]]

+ * [[passatismo]]

+ * [[passatistico]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[trapassato]]

+ * [[passare]]

+ * [[passata]]

+ * [[la|passus]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Set phrases include ''in passato'' “formerly”, ''avere un passato'' “to have had many experiences (often questionable ones)” and ''acqua passata''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Treccani 2011) As an adjective of time it follows the noun (''l'anno passato''), whereas in other uses it can precede it (''le passate stagioni'').^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Gabrielli 2020)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}