▪ I. paten
(ˈpætən)
Forms: 4 pateyn(e, 4, 7–9 patin, 5 payten, 5–6 patyn, 5–7 patent, 5–8 patten, 5–9 patene, 7–9 -ine, 5– paten.
[ME. patene, -eyn(e, a. OF. patène (1380 in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. patena, patina wide shallow vessel, pan, basin; cf. Gr. πατάνη a kind of flat dish. Cf. It. ˈpatena ‘any kind of dish, platter, or charger, a treene dish or wooden tray’, ˈpatina ‘a dish or platter, a great charger’ (Florio).]
1. The plate or shallow dish, usually circular and of silver, on which the bread is laid at the celebration of the Eucharist.
| c 1300 Havelok 187 A wol fair cloth bringen he dede, And þer-on leyde þe messebok, Þe caliz, and þe pateyn ok. c 1315 Shoreham Poems (E.E.T.S.) 52/1444 He takþ þe chalys wyþ þe wyne, And brede of þe pateyne. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 648/8 Hec patena, patent. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxxx. 245 Charlys leyde his right hond on the paten with goddes body, and his lift hond on the missale and said we..sweren on goddes body and the holy gospels. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Commun. Rubric, Laiyng the breade upon the corporas, or els in the paten, or in some other comely thyng, prepared for that purpose. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. Ad §12. 96 The bread of the Paten, and the wine of the Chalice. 1662 Bk. Com. Prayer, Commun. Rubric, Here the Priest is to take the Paten into his hands. 1718 Hickes & Nelson J. Kettlewell ii. xxxii. 136 The Vessels..(being a Patten, two Chalices, a Flagon and a Bason). 1852 C. M. Yonge Cameos (1877) II. xxii. 238 In full canonical attire, with the chalice and paten in his hands. |
b. Used as a cover for the chalice.
| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 99 For to make a declaracioune, On the chalice patyn. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 385/2 Patene, or pateyne of a chalys [v. rr. patent, paten, payten], patena. 1509 Invent. in Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) V. 366 A Gret chales w{supt} the patent gilt. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 259 The chalice [betokeneth] the sepulcre, the paten the stone that couered the sepulcre. 1611 Cotgr., Patine, the Patine, or couer of a Chalice. 1658 Phillips, Paten,..a little flat saucer used by the Priests with the chalice at Masse. 1801 A. Ranken Hist. France I. i. v. 468 Sixty chalices and fifteen patens or covers of pure gold. |
2. gen. A shallow dish or plate. arch. or Hist.
| [c 1340 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 203 In coquina..2 patene bone.] 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. vii. (B.M. MS.), Ydo in concaues of yre and a paten or a shelle ydo þer vnder. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Patin,..a great Platter, a Charger, a Bason to wash in. 1678 Phillips (ed. 4), Patin,..a sort of Vessel wherein the Priests used to bring their sodden Meat to Table. a 1704 T. Brown Praise of Poverty Wks. 1730 I. 103 A little silver patin, peculiarly dedicated to the Gods. 1865 Swinburne Poems & Ball., Masque Q. Bersabe 13 Fed from the gilt patens fine. 1883 Solon O.E. Potter i. 8 [Articles found in mounds] are jugs, pipkins, piggins, patens or bowls,..all articles made for the poor. |
3. A thin circular plate of metal; anything resembling or suggesting this.
(In later writers after the Shakes. quot., in which the Qq. and Fol. 1 have pattens, the later Folios patterns. Levins 1570 has both patten and pattern as = L. prototypon. But cf. OF. patenne = lame plate, ‘un bras de bois couvert de patennes d'argent’, Godef.)
| 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. v. i. 59 Sit Iessica, looke how the floore of heauen Is thicke inlayed with pattens of bright gold. 1870 Kingsley At Last vii, The Ipomœa Bona-nox, whose snow-white patines, as broad as the hand, open at night-fall on every hedge. 1888 Archæol. Rev. Mar. 72 Patins of gold on both sides of the back of his head to confine his hair. |
4. attrib. † paten-bred (see bred n.); paten-cover, a paten forming the cover of a chalice.
| 1501 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. II. 73 Item..for ij patene⁓breddis of iwory bane to the Gray Freris of Strivelin..iiijs. 1880 Archæol. Cantiana XIII. 417 The silver Communion cup, of date 1693–4, has a paten-cover. |
▪ II. paten
obs. form of patent, patten