pastille

See also: Pastille

English

WOTD – 6 November 2021

Etymology 1

Types of fruit-flavoured pastilles (sense 1).
A pastille (sense 3.2) or cough drop containing eucalyptus oil and menthol.

Partly from the following:[1]

  • From Late Middle English pastil, pastill (“crushed leek leaves; vegetable pulp”),[2] borrowed from Old French pastel, probably from Latin pastillus, pastillum (“small bread roll; lozenge to freshen breath; medicated lozenge”), possibly from pāstus (“fed, nourished; consumed; having eaten; of an animal: driven to pasture, pastured; having browsed or grazed”) + -illus (diminutive suffix). Pāstus is the perfect passive participle of pāscō (“to feed, nourish; to maintain, support; of an animal: to drive to pasture, pasture; to browse, graze”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect; to shepherd”).
  • Borrowed from French pastille (“candy or medicinal lozenge; small fragrant pellet burnt to perfume the air; pellet, pill”), and from its etymon Spanish pastilla (“candy or medicinal lozenge; small fragrant pellet burnt to perfume the air”), from Latin pastillus, pastillum; see above.

Doublet of pastegh, pastel, pastiglia, pastila, and pastilla.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpæst(ɪ)l/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /pæsˈtil/
  • Rhymes: -ɪl (GA pronunciation)
  • Hyphenation: past‧ille

Noun

pastille (plural pastilles)

  1. An often round and somewhat flat flavoured candy or sweet.
  2. Any small, usually round and somewhat flat, granular piece of material; a tablet.
    • 2003, The Complete Drawing & Painting Course, →ISBN, page 201:
      Watercolors of professional quality come in small pastilles of dry pigment, in pans of semi-moist paint, or in tubes or bottles of liquid watercolor.
    1. (specifically, historical) A small pellet containing aromatic substances, burned to diffuse a fragrance or to disinfect or fumigate.
      • 1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray:
        At the end he felt faint and sick, and having lit some Algerian pastilles in a pierced copper brazier, he bathed his hands and forehead with a cool musk-scented vinegar.
  3. (pharmacy)
    1. (historical) A medicinal pill, originally made of compressed herbs.
      • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 14:
        In the desperate search for amatory satisfactions, the most monstrous ingredients have throughout the ages, been sought and compounded into electuaries and pastilles, philtres and ointments.
    2. A candy- or sweet-like lozenge, which, when sucked, releases substances that soothe a sore throat, and sometimes vapours to help unblock the nose or sinuses.
      Synonyms: cough drop, troche
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Translations
candy- or sweet-like lozenge, which, when sucked, releases substances that soothe a sore throat, and sometimes vapours to help unblock the nose or sinuses

Etymology 2

See pastel.

Pronunciation

Noun

pastille (plural pastilles)

  1. (obsolete, art) Nonstandard spelling of pastel (“crayon made from a type of dried paste; drawing made using such crayons”).

References

  1. ^ Compare “pastille, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2021; “pastille, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “pastil, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Etymology

From Spanish pastilla (“small roll of fragrant dough”), from Latin pastellum (“dough, paste”), a diminutive form of pasta (“dough, paste”). Doublet of pastel.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pas.tij/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

pastille f (plural pastilles)

  1. (archaic) small roll of dough containing fragrant ingredients baked in order to perfume the air
  2. pastille, lozenge, drop (medicinal or candy)
    J'ai acheté des pastilles contre la toux.
    I bought some cough drops.
  3. lozenge-shaped figure in a design
  4. the conductive part of a printed circuit board that components are fixed to

Derived terms

  • pastillage
  • pastillette
  • pastilleur
  • pastilleux
  • pastille de gomme

Descendants

  • → Romanian: pastilă
  • → Turkish: pastil

Further reading

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