Passum

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Passum Isidorus est quicquid ex uva passa expressum efluxerit dicitur autem a patiendo nam percutitur uva siccior et decoquitur unde fit passum et cetera.


Apparatus:

Passum ABC fjp | Passus ms. e
quicquid | inquid p
efluxerit ABC f | effluxerit ejp
{efluxerit} add. et p
autem | arabice ms. e | om. f
patiendo AB | paciendo fjp | petendo C e
fit | fuit j
et cetera om. fj


Translation:

Passum, Isidore says, is whatever is pressed out from raisins {lit. "spread out", i.e. dried grapes} and runs off. For this reason it is named from patior / passus {i.e. "to suffer"}, because the well dried grape is pounded and boiled down {i.e. "suffers"}, and from this raisin wine is produced, etc.


Commentary:

Passum:
Simon offers a near-verbatim quote from Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, 20, 3, 14, Oxford edition (1911) [[1]]. It is a typically Isidorean fanciful etymology built on phonetic similarity and some faintly connected semantic free association. Latin passum {sc. vinum "raisin wine"} is the neuter form of passus, and it serves as the past participle of patior {“to suffer”} but here more relevantly it is also the past participle of the verb pando meaning "to spread out, unfold; throw open, dry", reflecting the practice that grapes were dried in the sun laid out in the open in a spread out fashion.


WilfGunther (talk) 05/01/2014


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