pastă

Forms

pastă f (plural paste)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek πάστα (pásta) and partly borrowed from German Pasta, the sources DEX and NODEX give.^[2][3] MDA2 adds French paste and Italian pasta, and the neologism dictionary names Greek, Italian and German.^[4][5] Ciorănescu and Wiktionary take the word from Italian through Greek, and Tiktin from Italian, directly or through another language.^[6][1][7]

The Greek word is itself from Italian.^[8][9] The Italian word continues Late Latin pasta (“barley porridge”), from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá), the neuter plural of παστός (pastós, “sprinkled with salt”), from πάσσω (pássō, “to sprinkle”).^[10][11] The German word follows the Italian form;^[11] German first borrowed it in the 15th century from Medieval Latin.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1816, in a work by Maior;^[7][4] MDA2 cites the same text as its first record.^[7][4] Barcianu's dictionary of 1886 glosses it with German Brei “mash, pulp”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

From the general sense of a soft mass made of a powder and a liquid, the word took on technical and culinary uses.^[4] Șăineanu's dictionary lists dough shaped for soup, any ground and kneaded substance such as paper, porcelain or tooth paste, and medicinal preparations.^[13] Scriban adds fruit boiled with sugar and dried, pastă de gutui “quince paste”, and paste italiene for macaroni and noodles.^[14] Ciorănescu records a Moldavian sense “pie”.^[6]

In painting it is a colour prepared with oil, and DEX also has it for nail polish.^[2][4] Paste făinoase is the usual term for dried pasta.^[2]

Timeline

• 1816 – first record, in a work by Maior.^[7]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it as “mash, pulp”.^[12]
• 1929 – Șăineanu lists soup pasta, paper, porcelain and tooth paste.^[13]
• 1939 – Scriban records pastă de gutui and paste italiene.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dense, even paste made by grinding substances and mixing them, usually with a liquid, to the wanted consistency: pastă de roșii “tomato paste”.^[2][3] Pastă de dinți: toothpaste.^[2]
2. Paste făinoase: pasta, dried foods of various shapes made from unleavened wheat dough.^[2][4]
3. A colour used in painting, usually prepared with oil.^[2][4]
4. An even, smooth nail polish.^[2]

Word family

• păstos

Related words

• pastel
• pastilă
• pateu
• Italian pasta

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 780
3. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. pastă
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 280
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. pastă
6. ^ 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. pastă
7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pastă
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 822
9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
12. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 461
13. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 468
14. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 940