pizzeria

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian pizzeria,^[2][3][4][5] formed from pizza and the suffix -eria, the Italian counterpart of -ery.^[2][3][6][7] Etymonline describes it as pizza with the ending found in cafeteria.^[8] The OED records the Italian word from 1881 or earlier,^[2] and the Italian etymological dictionary of Cortelazzo and Zolli quotes an 1884 account by Serao of a Neapolitan businessman who opened a pizzeria in Rome.^[9] Pizza itself is of uncertain origin.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place where pizzas are made or sold: 1901, in the Century Magazine.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to about 1912,^[3] Etymonline finds it by 1928 in the names of restaurants around New York City,^[8] and Dictionary.com dates it to 1940–45.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word was known to English readers as an Italian sign before it was used as an English word: in 1881 the Graphic told travellers in Naples that the word Pizzeria over a doorway marked a typically Neapolitan establishment, much like a pastry-cook's shop.^[2] Etymonline notes that in the 1920s and 1930s pizzeria sometimes also meant the pizza pie itself.^[8] Collins and the Shorter Oxford class the word as a 20th-century borrowing.^[6][10]

Timeline

• 1881 – the Italian word noted on shop doorways in Naples.^[2]
• 1901 – a place where pizzas are made or sold.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives about 1912.^[3]
• 1920s – also used for the pizza pie itself.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A restaurant or shop where pizzas are made and sold or eaten: They met for dinner at a pizzeria near the station.^[4][3][6][2]

Related words

• pizza
• -ery

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press