Etymologically
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pizza

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 02:09. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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
  • 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