DanA> Interesting that "pace" means 2 steps.

It certainly also means just 1 step, in common parlance.

Just one of those little contradictions of language. Here is def. 3 for pace, according to < www.m-w.com >:

3 a : step 2a(1) b : any of various units of distance based on the length of a human step

and this is def. 2a(1) for step:

2 a (1) : an advance or movement made by raising the foot and bringing it down elsewhere

--Dan

The off-line (and far superior) MW gives 3 a : a movement of the foot over a space to a new position in walking, running, or dancing : STEP *took a pace or two in the room Guy McCrone* b (1) : the space traversed by one step used as an indefinite unit of measure *cannot go five paces without seeing some wretched object Irish Digest* (2) : any of various units of distance based on the length of a human step at a specified time (as for quick time 30 inches and for double time 36 inches) see ROMAN PACE roman pace: an ancient Roman unit of length that is equal to five Roman feet or 4.85 English feet and is measured in pacing from the heel of one foot to the heel of the same foot when it next touches the ground

From the MW etymology, apparently passuum is genitive. We were taught that "mile" came from millia passus, which gets lots of Google hits in Latin texts, but MW likes milia. --rwg ROMAN PACE CAMPANERO