ravioli

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian ravioli, the plural of raviolo,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in Italian from the first half of the 14th century as raviuoli, in early use also for a kind of meatball.^[2] The OED compares the Medieval Latin raviolus, used in Italian sources from 1284 for a meatball, and rabiola, about 1243 in a British source;^[2] French ravioli, from 1807, is from Italian.^[2] Merriam-Webster takes the Italian word from a southern dialect word meaning literally “little turnip”, a diminutive of rava (“turnip”), from Latin rāpa;^[3][7][8][9] the American Heritage Dictionary gives this derivation with a “perhaps”.^[5] The revised OED calls the further origin uncertain and disputed: the turnip derivation assumes that the pasta was first filled with turnips, but early ravioli held minced pork, eggs, cheese and spices, or in Lent herbs and cheese; a proposed Latin cheese name, said to be in Pliny, does not exist.^[2] Barnhart takes it as a diminutive of some noun now unknown,^[6] and Etymonline as probably going back to Medieval Latin rauba (“covered”), the source of robe.^[10] English had borrowed the word earlier: as Middle English rafiole, meatballs baked in pastry, from Middle French raviolle,^[2] or, according to Barnhart, from Old French raviole or directly from Italian rafioli.^[6] Barnhart and Etymonline think each occurrence may have been a separate borrowing.^[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pasta envelopes with a filling of meat, cheese or vegetables: 1760, in a letter of C. Hervey from Portugal and Spain.^[2][3] The 1989 edition of the OED dated the word 1841,^[11] like Etymonline and Barnhart, who name Thackeray in Fraser's Magazine as the first to borrow the modern word directly from Italian.^[10][6]

Semantic evolution

The medieval dish, recorded in English from before 1399 as rafyols and raffyolys, was a ball of meat or cheese in pastry, baked or fried rather than boiled as now.^[10][6][2] In 1611 Florio's dictionary gave raviol for small meatballs baked in a crust.^[6][2] The modern word names the pasta itself and the dish made from it, usually served with a sauce.^[2][4]

Timeline

• before 1399 – rafyols, balls of meat or cheese baked in pastry, in the Forme of Cury.^[6][2][10]
• 1611 – raviol, small meatballs baked in a crust, in Florio's dictionary.^[6][2]
• 1760 – ravioli, small cases of pasta with a filling.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Small square, round or half-moon cases of pasta filled with meat, cheese or vegetables: They bought fresh spinach ravioli at the market.^[2][3][8]
2. A dish of these, usually served with a sauce.^[4][2]

Related words

• rafiole

Usage notes

In Italian the word is a plural; in English it is used as a mass noun, and Merriam-Webster also records the plural raviolis.^[2][12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster