Word of the DayMonday, May 17, 1999
repast
\rih-PAST\ , noun:1.
Something taken as food; a meal.
Quotes:
This repast could scarcely have been digested before a "tea" of fresh bread, butter, cheese, cold meat, and cake was served at half past six.
-- Joan Druett, Hen Frigates
On June 1, 1563, in Basel, Thomas sat down to a meal, probably the evening repast.
-- Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, The Beggar and the Professor (translated by Arthur Goldhammer)
When staying with friends in American in 1949, the philosopher demanded bread and cheese at all meals. Every time the dull repast was laid before him, he would exclaim, as if for the first time, "Hot diggetty!", a phrase he had picked up from the movies.
-- Bee Wilson, "Stomach tracts", New Statesman, January 8, 1999
Origin:
Repast comes from Old French repaistre, "to feed," from Latin re- + pascere, "to feed." It is related to pasture, "the grass grown for the feeding of grazing animals, or the land used for grazing."
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