pátio

• pateo (pre-standardization spelling)

From Old Occitan patu or pati, from Latin pactum (“pact, agreement”) or from Latin pateō (“to lie open”).

• Hyphenation: pá‧ti‧o

pátio m (plural pátios)

1. courtyard (an area, open to the sky, partially or wholly surrounded by walls or buildings)

   Synonym: área

2. yard (a small area adjoining the precincts of a house or other building)

   Synonym: quintal

   • 1938, Graciliano Ramos, “Mudança [A New Home]”, in Vidas Seccas [Barren Lives], Rio de Janeiro: Livraria José Olympio Editora, page 12:

     Estavam no pateo duma fazenda sem vida. O curral deserto, o chiqueiro das cabras arruinado e tambem deserto, a casa do vaqueiro fechada, tudo annunciava abandono. Certamente o gado se finara e os moradores tinham fugido.

     They were in the yard of a barren farm. The corrals empty, the goats’ sty ruined and also deserted, the cowhand’s house closed everything pointed to it being abandoned. Certainly the cattle had faltered and the dwellers had run.

3. vestibule (passage, hall or room between the outer door and the interior of a building)

   Synonym: vestíbulo

4. patio (paved area next to a house)