pace [ME] The word pace comes via Old French pas from Latin passus ‘stretch (of the leg)’. As well as stepping, it also meant ‘journey, route’ in early examples. To be put through your paces arose in the mid 18th century from horse-riding. The notion of ‘tempo’ as in change of pace is from the 1950s while pace yourself is only found from the 1970s. Other words from the same root are pass [ME] in the sense to go by, passage [ME]; passenger [ME] the ‘n’ added to conform with words like ‘messenger’; and expand, literally to stretch out. The Old French form of expand, espandre, has the special sense of ‘to shed, spill, pour out’ and is the origin of to spawn [LME].