Where does “pastel” come from?
Pastel comes from French pastel, from Italian pastello, from Latin pasta meaning dough or paste, from Ancient Greek παστός meaning sprinkled or kneaded.
pastel (English): Any of several subdued tints of colors, usually...
Definitions
- Any of several subdued tints of colors, usually...
Ancestry of “pastel”, step by step
pastel traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via French pastel
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | pastel | woad; pastel |
| 2 | Italian | pastello | pastel |
| 3 | Latin | pastellum | dough, paste |
| 4 | Latin | pasta | paste; nominative/vocative feminine singular of... |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | παστά | barley porridge |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | παστός | sprinkled with salt, salted; woman's chamber,... |
| 7 | Ancient Greek | πάσσω | I sprinkle |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | kʷeh₁t- | to shake |
via Spanish pastel
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spanish | pastel | cake; pastry; pie |
| 2 | Old French | pastel | — |
| 3 | Latin | pastillus | cake, pastille; pastille |
| 4 | Latin | -illus | Used to form adjectives from nouns |
| 5 | Latin | -lus | Alternative form of -ulus; diminutive suffix |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -elos | Forms desubstantival and deadjectival diminutive nouns |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -e-lós | — |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -lós | Forms agent nouns from verbal roots |