petit pâté

noun

A small pie or pasty.

OriginMiddle French petit →
First used 15th c.
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Meanings

nounpetit pâté (plural petit pâtés or petits pâtés)

plural petit pâtés · plural petits pâtés

  1. A small pie or pasty.First known use 15th c.

    With considerable willingness I ate and drank, keeping the petit pâté till the last, as a bonne bouche.

    1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette
    1 more example

    There was a course of two soups, two dishes of fish, stewed beef, boiled lamb and spinach, roast mutton, fricandeau of veal, petit pâté—in short, substantial and choice.

    1794, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 283

Origin

  1. Middle Frenchpetit“small”
  2. Englishpetit pâté

From Middle French petit (“small”) + pâté (“pie, pasty”).

More words from Middle French

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

petit pâté. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/petit%20p%C3%A2t%C3%A9

MLA

“petit pâté.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/petit%20p%C3%A2t%C3%A9. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “petit pâté,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/petit%20p%C3%A2t%C3%A9.

Source: petit pâté on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.