▪ I. pasty, n.
(ˈpæstɪ, ˈpɑːstɪ, ˈpeɪstɪ)
Forms: 4–5 pastee, paste, 4–6 pastey, 5 -eye, -ay, 5–7 pastie, 6 -ye, 5– pasty.
[ME. pastee, a. OF. pastée adj. of ppl. form (L. type *pastāta), from Rom. pasta paste, i.e. something made of or with paste. OF. had also the corresp. masc. pasté (L. type *pastātum), whence perh. ME. pasté.]
a. Formerly, a pie, consisting usually of venison or other meat seasoned and enclosed in a crust of pastry, and baked without a dish; a meat-pie. Now usu. a small pastry turnover containing meat and vegetables (see Cornish pasty), or fruit. Also transf.
| a 1300 Land Cokayne 54 in E.E.P. (1862) 157 Al of pasteiis beþ þe walles, Of fleis, of fisse, and rich met. c 1300 Havelok 644 Bred an chese, butere and milk, Pastees and flaunes. c 1386 Chaucer Cook's Prol. 22 Many a pastee hastow laten blood. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 208 And bad ordeine for here mete Tuo Pastes. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 490 Venesoun bake,..Kut it in þe pastey. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. cxiii. 325 Botelles of wyne..and pastyes of samonde, troutes, and eyls. 1659–60 Pepys Diary 6 Jan., The venison pasty was palpable beef, which was not handsome. 1717 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Abbé Conti 17 May, Bakers..with cakes, loaves, pasties. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 432 A pasty of game and a flagon of hock. 1877 N. & Q. 14 Apr. 297 The Divisions of an Orange... The word ‘pasty’ is used in Cornwall, from the likeness to the shape of the Cornish pasty baked without a dish. 1880 M. E. Braddon Barbara xliii. 295, I sold my comforter to Billy Blake for a whortleberry pasty. 1880 M. A. Courtney in Courtney & Couch Gloss. Words Cornwall 41/2 Pasty, a meat and potatoe or fruit turnover. 1906 J. H. Harris Cornish Saints & Sinners (ed. 2) xx. 194 When small, a pasty is a snack; when large, it's a meal... The home of the pasty is Cornwall. 1966 Times 28 Dec. 9/7 Cornwall is as protective about its pasties as Devon is about its cream. 1972 K. Stewart ‘Times’ Cookery Bk. xvi. 213 (heading) Chicken liver and bacon pasties. 1978 R. Busby Garvey's Code x. 119 Cooper collected a couple of pasties in a paper bag. |
† b. ? A confection; cf. paste n. 1 b. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. cxvii. (Bodl. MS.) Of þis serpente Vipera beth made pasties þat beþ icleped Crosisti tiriaci of þe whiche is made triacle þat remedy aȝens venym. |
c. Comb., as pasty-crust, pasty-lid, pasty-maker, pasty-wench.
| 1311 Letter Bk. D City of London lf. 133 b, Ricardus filius Gregorii le Pastemakere attachiatus..pro eo quod indictatur in Warda de Bisshoppesgate quod ipse est noctivagus. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 631 Open þe pastey lid. 1562 Turner Baths 14 Beware of..pies and pasticrustes and all vnleuened breade. 1584 Cogan Haven Health iv. (1636) 27 Hard crusts, and Pasticrusts, doe engender adust choller. 1631 Celestina xv. 166 That old pasty-wench. |
▪ II. pasty, a.
(ˈpeɪstɪ)
[f. paste n. + -y.]
a. Like or resembling paste; of the consistence, appearance, or colour of paste; esp. of the complexion: pale and dull.
| 1659 H. More Immort. Soul ii. vii. §13. 197 Supposing that the Soul's Centre of perception..could be..seated in such dull pasty Matter as the Pith of the Brain is. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §185 A soft pasty substance. 1864 H. Ainsworth John Law iii. iii. (1881) 163 His fat, pasty face. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 193 Little cavities..formed by the disengagement of gas or vapour when the matter is in a pasty condition. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 388 A white pasty fur on the tongue is looked upon as a sign of atony and weakness. |
| fig. 1884 Pall Mall G. 12 Apr. 2 His pasty sophistries concerning prison discipline. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 28 Jan. 4/1 The pasty feeling of exhaustion usually experienced at the end of a long [railway] journey. 1926 E. O'Neill Great God Brown 100 A little dab of pasty resignation here and there—and even broken hearts may be repaired to do yeoman service! |
b. Of or pertaining to paste jewellery.
| 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. x, A pasty sort of glitter. |
c. Comb., as pasty-faced adj.
| 1607 Dekker & Webster Northw. Hoe i. D.'s Wks. 1873 III. 10 You pasty-footed Rascalls. 1878 E. Yates Wrecked in Port vi. 51 Fat, pasty-faced, straight-haired. |