păsat

Forms

păsat n (uncountable)^[1] Regional forms are pisat (the Banat, Hațeg, Sălaj), pâsat and pusat;^[2][3][4] Alecsandri wrote pasat: „Lui Barbu-i curgea și laptele-n pasat” “for Barbu the milk was flowing into the groats”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pīnsātum (“pounded”), a participle of pīnsō (“to pound, crush”) in its first-conjugation form, so “something pounded”.^{[2][5][6][3][1]} Tiktin rejects pēnsātum, which could mean “pressed” at most but not “crushed” or “pounded”; once the noun was no longer felt to belong to the verb pisa, its unstressed ⟨i⟩ developed as in vecin from vīcīnus.^[6] Candrea and Densusianu explain it as a shortening of a phrase with milium (“millet”), “millet pounded in the mortar” to husk it, and compare Spanish pisada and Portuguese pisada.^[3]

Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of that verb, itself from a popular Latin form of the same verb without the nasal.^[7] He finds a link with quassātum (“scutched”), proposed by Pușcariu, possible but not necessary.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a document of 1657.^[6] MDA2 cites Nicolae Costin's chronicle of Moldavia, whose account runs to 1601.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant millet husked by pounding in a mortar: Candrea and Densusianu quote a 19th-century farming manual that calls husked millet păsat.^[3] By extension it was coarsely ground maize and, more rarely, other grain, and then the porridge cooked from it and eaten with milk, butter and cheese.^[5][2] The Buda lexicon of 1825 already has both the uncooked groats and the porridge.^[8] A 19th-century hygienist lists păsat beside mămăligă, terci and mălai among the ways peasants eat maize.^[6] In Transylvania the word also names the millet plant.^[2][9]

The porridge with milk is a picture of good fortune: a-i curge (cuiva) lapte în păsat “to have milk flowing into one's groats” means to prosper, and a-i cădea păsat în gușă to get something without work.^[6][2] A face (pe cineva) păsat means “to crush someone”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1657 – the first record, in a document.^[6]
• 1825 – păsatu “groats; porridge” in the Buda lexicon.^[8]
• 1929 – păsat as a Transylvanian name of the millet plant in Panțu's plant dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Husked, often pounded seeds of millet; by extension coarsely ground maize or other grain; groats.^[5][2][1]
2. (botany, regional) The millet plant.^[5][2]
3. A porridge of boiled groats, eaten with milk, butter, cheese and the like.^[5][2][1]

Related words

• pisa
• mei
• Latin pīnsō

Usage notes

The form păsat is also the past participle of the verb păsa “to matter”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 307
3. ^ a b c d e Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. păsat
4. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 359
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 789
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. păsat
7. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. pisa
8. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 486
9. ^ a b Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 213
10. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org