pizza

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈpiːt.sə/, /ˈpɪt.sə/, US /ˈpiːt.sə/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian pizza (“cake, tart, pie”), a word of uncertain origin.^[2][3][4] Proposed sources include Vulgar Latin *picea, from Latin piceus “of pitch”, Latin pīnsere “to pound” and Greek pitta “cake”, but according to Barnhart none overcomes the difficulties of form or meaning.^[3][5][6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A flat round of dough baked with a topping: 1845 in Etymonline, in a translation of Alexandre Dumas's sketches of Naples; the OED and Barnhart first record it in 1935, and SOED in the late 19th century.^[2][7][3][8]

Semantic evolution

It was a new food to native-born Americans when immigrants began to open pizzerias in the Northeast of the United States in the 1920s.^[2] Combinations such as pizza parlour and pizza pie are from 1971 in the OED.^[7]

Timeline

• 1845 – in a translation of Dumas.^[2]
• 1920s – pizzerias in the United States.^[2]
• 1935 – first OED quotation.^[7][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A flat, round base of dough baked with a topping of tomatoes, cheese and often other foods such as sausage or olives.

Word family

• pizzalike

Related words

• pizzeria

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press