pâté n.2

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.

1818, French, short for pâté de foie gras (1827 in English), literally "pie of fat liver;" originally served in a pastry (as still in Alsace), the phrase now chiefly in English with reference to the filling. French foie "liver" is cognate with Italian fegato, from Latin *ficatum. For pâté see pâté (n.2); for gras see grease (n.).