Definition
A designated meadow or pasture ground set apart for the grazing and feeding of cattle. The term refers to land specifically allocated for pastoral use — distinct from arable land or woodland — typically as part of a larger estate, common, or agricultural holding. In its extended form, PASCUA SILVA denotes a feeding wood: a wooded area devoted to the sustenance of cattle, recognized in the civil law tradition.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Pascua" does not appear as a standard English entry; the word is Spanish and Portuguese for "Easter" or "Passover," and is used in those languages as a proper or liturgical term.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not entered as an English word.
Editorial note: The legal term PASCUA has no meaningful connection to its Spanish or Portuguese cognate meaning. Researchers encountering "pascua" in historical legal documents — particularly those involving Spanish land grants or civil law sources — should not assume a religious or calendrical reference. The legal meaning is purely pastoral and agrarian.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
PASCUA SILVA: A sub-category appearing in the Digest (Dig. 50, 16, 30, 5) referring to woodland used for the feeding of cattle, as opposed to open meadow or pasture. The distinction mattered in Roman and civil law property analysis because woodland carried different use-rights and classifications than open grazing land.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in Spanish colonial land grant records, civil law jurisdictions, or early American territorial property documents may encounter "pascua" as a land classification term. In those contexts it functions as a technical descriptor of land use — relevant to boundary disputes, common rights, and the extent of conveyed interests — not as a religious term.
The term appears in the civil law tradition through the Digest, meaning it may surface in sources bearing on Louisiana, Florida, Texas, California, and other jurisdictions with Spanish or French civil law heritage. When reviewing early land grants in those territories, "pascua" or "tierra de pascua" may describe a category of land explicitly set aside for grazing, which could affect questions of alienability, enclosure, and competing use-rights.
Historical sources are sparse on this term outside the civil law context. Researchers should not expect robust treatment in common law property dictionaries; the term is primarily a civil law and Romano-Hispanic land-use classification.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary are in agreement on the core definition: a particular meadow or pasture set apart to feed cattle. The second edition adds the sub-entry PASCUA SILVA with its Digest citation, providing the only primary source reference in the historical record surveyed. Neither edition elaborates on procedural or transactional context, and neither addresses the term's appearance in Spanish colonial land documentation — a gap researchers working in American territorial archives should note. The Digest citation (Dig. 50, 16, 30, 5) places the term within the Roman law of definitions and word meanings, suggesting it was treated as a term of art requiring formal clarification even in the classical civil law tradition.
Jurisdictional Note
The term is most relevant in civil law jurisdictions and in states with Spanish colonial land grant histories, including Louisiana, Texas, California, New Mexico, and Florida. Common law jurisdictions have no direct equivalent classification, though analogous concepts appear under terms such as COMMON OF PASTURE or PROFIT À PRENDRE.