English
repast
Repast comes from Old French repast ‘a meal’, from Latin pāscō ‘to feed, nourish, maintain, support’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- ‘to protect, to ward’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peh₂-1‘to protect, to ward’uncertain
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*péh₂sti1‘to guard, to protect’uncertain
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*pāskō1‘to feed’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpāscō1‘to feed, nourish, maintain, support’uncertain
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CErepāscō2as repastus‘meal’uncertain
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400repas2‘meal, repast’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400repast2‘a meal’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500repast2
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1592repast2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin repasco
- 2 Wiktionary, English repast
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew: “I prethee go, and get me ſome repaſt, /…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peh₂-Wiktionary, Latin repasco‘to protect, to ward’uncertain
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*péh₂stiWiktionary, Latin repasco‘to guard, to protect’uncertain
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*pāskōWiktionary, Latin repasco‘to feed’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpāscōWiktionary, Latin repasco‘to feed, nourish, maintain, support’uncertain
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CErepāscōWiktionary, English repastas repastus‘meal’uncertain
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400repasWiktionary, English repast‘meal, repast’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400repastWiktionary, English repast‘a meal’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500repastWiktionary, English repast
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1592repastWiktionary, English repast. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew: “I prethee go, and get me ſome repaſt, /…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- ‘to protect, to ward’
food, company, father, pain, feed, pope, pattern, foster, fur, companion, apparent, penetration, papa, patriot, patron, fodder, perpetrator, fad, forage, accompaniment, paternal, paternity, ayr, padre, perpetrate, patrician, panini, patrimony, pater, pav, pantaloons, compere, pannier, 57 more
through Proto-Indo-European *péh₂sti ‘to guard, to protect’
through Proto-Italic *pāskō ‘to feed’
through Latin pāscō ‘to feed, nourish, maintain, support’
Today it means
noun A meal.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “repast”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin repasco. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- / repast