Farms › Sabes? › Do you know where the word «payés» comes from?
Do you know where the word «payés» comes from?
When somebody at a market says «this is de payés», they are using a word with the word «país» — country — inside it.
From the Latin pagus
The Latin pagus was the rural district, the countryside with its scattered houses. Whoever lived there was pagensis, and from that came the Catalan pagès and the Castilian payés. From the same root come país and paisano: the one from the same country as you.
That is why «de payés» is not an adjective of quality
Literally it means «of the countryside, of whoever works it». It is not a mark, nobody awards it and it cannot be checked on a piece of paper: it is checked by asking. The question that settles it in one second is «is this yours?», and the answer shows in the detail they give it to you with.
The word still means the same thing
A mercat de pagès was, and still is, the place where whoever grows it comes down to sell. That today the grower and the reseller stand side by side in it has not changed the word's name, it has only made it more useful: it tells you what you have to look for.
Carry on here
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