paște

Forms

paște (third-person singular present paște, past participle păscut, third-person subjunctive pască), 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pāscō (“to feed, pasture”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect”);^[1] de Vaan reconstructs a root *peh₂-s- (“to protect, herd”) and a present *p(e)h₂-sk-e/o-, the source also of Latin pāstor (“shepherd”) and pābulum (“fodder”).^[5]

The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian pascu and Megleno-Romanian pascu.^[2][6] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian puoskro, Italian pascere, French paître, Occitan paiser, Catalan paixer, Spanish pacer and Portuguese pascer.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is in the Psaltirea Voronețeană (c. 1551–1558), as pască and as the imperfect păștea.^[8] Tiktin also records it in the Codicele Voronețean, at Acts 20:28.^[9] The sense “graze” is plain in Coresi's Gospel commentary of 1581, which MDA2 gives as its first record: „era departe de ei o turmă de porci mulți, păștea” “far off from them a herd of many swine was feeding”.^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

Romanian kept both uses of the Latin verb: animals graze, and the herdsman pastures them.^[2][4] The herdsman's sense was carried over to the clergy, who “pasture” a flock of believers;^[2][3] MDA2 labels this use obsolete.^[2][3] Watching a herd also gave the senses “to watch for, lie in wait for, threaten”: a danger, a sin or death “grazes” someone when it follows him and may strike at any moment.^[2][4] Șăineanu put this last sense down to Hebrew influence, but Ciorănescu finds that unnecessary, since for a herdsman pasturing animals means just waiting and watching over them.^[2] In the 17th century Dosoftei could say that an angel „mă foarte paște și-m păzeaște trupul” “keeps close watch on me and guards my body”.^[9]

Many idioms grew from the pasture: a paște muștele (or vântul, bobocii) “to idle”, n-am păscut porcii împreună “we did not keep pigs together”, said to someone who is too familiar, and the compound paște-vânt “good-for-nothing”.^[4][3] The phrase a paște vântul follows the Latin Bible's pascit ventum (Hosea 12:1).^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1551–1558 – pască and păștea in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[8]
• c. 1563–1583 – a record in the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 20:28).^[9]
• 1570 – păscu in Coresi's Psalter.^[11]
• 1581 – păștea “was grazing”, of a herd of swine, in Coresi's Gospel commentary.^[10][3]
• 1682–1686 – “to watch over” someone, of an angel, in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of animals: to graze, to feed on grass or plants in the field;^[4][1] (figurative) to keep up or nurse a feeling.^[4][1]
2. Of people: to pasture animals, to take and watch them at grazing;^[4][3][1] (obsolete) to look after the souls of a community.^[4][3][1]
3. Of dangers, death or luck: to lie in wait for someone, to threaten at any moment, or to favour unexpectedly: îl paște moartea “death is lurking for him”.^[4][3]

Word family

• păscare
• păscut
• păscătoare
• păscui

Related words

• păstor
• pășune
• Aromanian pascu
• Latin pāscō

Usage notes

The capitalised noun Paște “Easter” is a separate word, inherited from Latin Paschae, the plural of pascha;^[2][4] DEX lists it as paște².^[2][4] A watchful person may be asked Ce paști aici?, a reproach to someone who was not paying attention.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. paște
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 281
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 781
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 820
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6263
8. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 151:1
9. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. paște
10. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. paște
11. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 77:78