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:

• From Late Middle English pastil, pastill (“crushed leek leaves; vegetable pulp”), 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.
3. (pharmacy)
   1. (historical) A medicinal pill, originally made of compressed herbs.
   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

• pastil (obsolete)

Derived terms

• pastillation
• pastillator
• pastilled (adjective)

Translations

often round and somewhat flat flavoured candy or sweet

• Arabic: قرص طبي محلى
• Armenian: մոնպանսիե (monpansie)
• Azerbaijani: monpası
• Catalan: pastilla (ca) f
• Danish: pastil
• Esperanto: pastelo (eo)
• Finnish: pastilli (fi)
• French: pastille (fr) f
• Georgian: კვერი (ka) (ḳveri)
• German: Pastila f, Pastille (de) f
• Greek: παστίλια (el) f (pastília)
• Hungarian: pasztilla (hu)
• Ido: pastilo (io)
• Italian: pastiglia (it) f
• Japanese: トローチ
• Latin: pastillus m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pastill m

  Nynorsk: pastill m

• Polish: pastylka (pl) f, landrynka (pl) f
• Russian: пастила́ (ru) f (pastilá), монпансье́ (ru) n (monpansʹjé) (round, flat hard candy)
• Spanish: gomita (es) f, pastilla (es) f
• Swedish: pastill (sv) c
• Turkish: pastil (tr)
• Ukrainian: монпансьє n (monpansʹje)

small, usually round and somewhat flat, granular piece of material — see also tablet

• Catalan: pastilla (ca) f
• Finnish: pastilli (fi)
• French: pastille (fr) f
• Galician: pastilla f
• Greek: παστίλια (el) f (pastília)
• Portuguese: pastilha (pt) f
• Spanish: pastilla (es) f
• Tocharian B: ṣpel, ṣpakīye f

small pellet containing aromatic substances, burned to diffuse a fragrance or to disinfect or fumigate

• Catalan: pevet m
• Galician: pastilla f

medicinal pill

• Bulgarian: таблетка f (tabletka)
• Catalan: pastilla (ca) f
• Finnish: kurkkupastilli
• Galician: pastilla f
• German: Pastille (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἔκλειγμα n (ékleigma), σφρᾱγῑ́ς (sphrāgī́s), πᾰ́στῐλλος (pástillos)

• Italian: pastiglia (it)
• Latin: pastillus m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pastill m

  Nynorsk: pastill m

• Polish: pastylka (pl) f
• Russian: пасти́лка (ru) f (pastílka), драже́ (ru) n (dražé), ледене́ц (ru) m (ledenéc) (in the form of hard candy), лепёшка (ru) f (lepjóška), табле́тка (ru) f (tablétka)
• Tocharian B: ṣpakīye, ṣpel

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

• Finnish: pastilli (fi), kurkkupastilli
• Galician: pastilla f
• Greek: παστίλια (el) f (pastília)
• Italian: pastiglia (it) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pastill m

  Nynorsk: pastill m

• Polish: pastylka (pl) f
• Portuguese: pastilha (pt) f
• Romanian: pastilă (ro) f
• Swedish: pastill (sv) c
• Turkish: pastil (tr)

Etymology 2

See pastel.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpæstl̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pæsˈtɛl/
• Rhymes: -æstəl, -ɛl
• Hyphenation: past‧ille

Noun

pastille (plural pastilles)

1. (obsolete, art) Nonstandard spelling of pastel (“crayon made from a type of dried paste; drawing made using such crayons”).
   • 1867, Indiana. State Board of Agriculture, Annual Report of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture:

     Best specimen of fancy painting, pastille, Emily C. Dills, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

   • 1873, Annual Report of the State Board of Agriculture of the State of Missouri:

     Pastille, Crayon or Chalk on Photograph.

   • 1913, University of Kansas, Bulletin - Volume 14, Issue 12 , page 35:

     Painting with water color, oil, or pastille, from still life.

Further reading

• pastille on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “pastille”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• palliest, stipella

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

Related terms

• pâte
• pastel

Descendants

• → Romanian: pastilă
• → Turkish: pastil

Further reading

• “pastille”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.