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Origin and history of paste

paste(n.)

c. 1300 (mid-12c. as a surname), "dough for the making of bread or pastry," from Old French paste "dough, pastry" (13c., Modern French pâte), from Late Latin pasta "dough, pastry cake, paste" (see pasta). Meaning "glue mixture, dough used as a plaster seal" is attested from c. 1400; broader sense of "a composition just moist enough to be soft without liquefying" is by c. 1600. In reference to a kind of heavy glass made of ground quartz, etc., often used to imitate gems, by 1660s.

paste(v.1)

1560s, "to stick with paste or cement;" see paste (n.). Meaning "apply paste to, cover by pasting over" is from c. 1600. Middle English had pasten "to make a paste of; bake in a pastry." Related: Pasted; pasting.

paste(v.2)

"hit hard," by 1846, probably an alteration of baste "beat" (see lambaste) influenced by some sense of paste (n.1). Related: Pasted; pasting.

also from 1846

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lambaste(v.)

1630s, apparently from baste "to thrash" (see baste (v.3)) + the obscure verb lam "to beat, to lame" or the related Elizabethan noun lam "a heavy blow" (implied by 1540s in puns on lambskin), for which see lamb. "In sailors' use, to beat with a rope's end" [Century Dictionary].

Compare earlier lamback "to beat, thrash" (1580s, used in old plays). A dictionary from c. 1600 defines Latin defustare as "to lamme or bumbast with strokes." Related: Lambasted; lambasting.

pasta(n.)

a generic name for Italian dough-based foods such as spaghetti, macaroni, etc., 1874, but not common in English until after World War II, from Italian pasta, from Late Latin pasta "dough, pastry cake, paste," from Greek pasta "barley porridge," probably originally "a salted mess of food," from neuter plural of pastos (adj.) "sprinkled, salted," from passein "to sprinkle," from PIE root *kwet- "to shake" (see quash).

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pastry
mid-15c., "food made with or from paste or having it as a principal ingredient," not originally limited to sweets, from Middle English paste (see paste (n.)) + -ry. Probably influenced by Old French pastoierie "pastry" (Modern French pâtisserie), from pastoier "pastry cook," from
spread
late 12c., spreden, "stretch out, lay out (clothes, hide, etc.); diffuse, disseminate (beams of light, grace);" also, of groups of persons, "advance over a wide area" (intransitive); probably from Old English *sprædan "to spread, stretch forth, extend" (especially in tosprædan "t
glue
"viscous adhesive substance," early 13c., from Old French glu "glue, birdlime" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *glutis or Late Latin glutem (nominative glus) "glue," from Latin gluten "glue, beeswax," from PIE *gleit- "to glue, paste" (source also of Lithuanian glitus "sticky," glitas
mustard
(late 12c. as a surname), "seed of the mustard plant crushed and used as a condiment paste or for medicinal purposes," from...see must (n.1)); so called because it was originally prepared by adding must to the ground seeds of the plant to make a paste...
rhinestone
colorless imitation stone of paste or leaded glass, 1879, a loan-translation of French caillou du Rhin "Rhine pebble," so...
putty
1630s, "type of plasterer's fine paste or cement," from French potée "polishing powder" (12c.), originally "pot-full, contents...
clobber
"kind of coarse dark paste used to cover breaks in leather in old shoes," which seems similar to Gaelic clabar "mud," but...
attach
mid-14c. (mid-13c. in Anglo-Latin), "to take or seize (property or goods) by law," a legal term, from Old French atachier "fasten; arrest" (11c.), earlier estachier "to attach, fix; stake up, support" (Modern French attacher, also compare Italian attaccare), from a- "to" (see ad-
tape
Old English tæppe "narrow strip of cloth used for tying, measuring, etc.," a word of uncertain origin; perhaps [Klein] a back-formation from Latin tapete "cloth, carpet." Middle English Compendium compares Old Frisian tapia, Middle Low German tapen "to pull, pluck, tear," and poi
peat
"partly decomposed vegetable matter abundant in moist regions of northern Europe," where, especially in Ireland, it was an important source of fuel, c. 1200 in Scottish Latin, of unknown origin, probably from a Celtic root *pett- (source also of Cornish peyth, Welsh peth "quantit

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