cappero

Forms

cappero m (plural capperi)^[1] Old Italian forms include capparo, Old Italian caperi and Old Italian chappari;^[2][3] Mantuan had Old Italian capari around 1300.^[2][3] The southern chiàpparo may have been reshaped after words in ⟨chia-⟩ or after acchiappare, since the plant clings to walls and cliffs.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin capparis (“caper”), from the accusative form, which is from Ancient Greek κάππαρις (kápparis).^[4][5][6][1] Latin also had the variants cappari, cappare and the feminine cappara, from Plautus on.^[3][7] Sabatini–Coletti posits a spoken *càpparu.^[8] The LEI calls the Greek word of unknown origin;^[3][4][9] DELI and Zingarelli suggest, with a question mark, that it is pre-Indo-European.^[3][4][9]

Old French had capparis in the second half of the 13th century.^[3] French câpre is a borrowing from Italian, while Spanish alcaparra and Portuguese alcaparra came through Arabic and the Mozarabic of Spain, with the Arabic article fused to the word.^[5][3] German Kaper took the word from French and Italian.^[10]

The LEI sees the Italian word as semi-learned, and notes that in Emilia and the south the plain word names the plant and the diminutive capperino the bud.^[3] The exclamation and the slang sense “penis” come from a euphemistic alteration of cazzo, or of canchero.^[4][3][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine translation of the Antidotarium Nicolai from the end of the 13th century, followed by Vivaldo Belcalzer's Mantuan translation of 1299–1309, where the word names the caper plant.^[2] DELI's first dates are capparo in the Tuscan Palladio of about 1340 and chapperi in a household account book of 1344.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Already in antiquity the name covered both the shrub and its edible bud, and Italian has kept both senses.^[3][6] The bud became one of the condiments of Italian cooking, kept in salt or vinegar.^[6][11]

In the 16th century the word took on euphemistic uses: Pietro Aretino has it for the penis in 1536, and Anton Francesco Grazzini uses the plural capperi! as an exclamation of surprise before 1566.^[4] The old variant cappe! may be a French borrowing.^[3] Colloquially, non m'importa un cappero means “I don't care a bit”, and the word strengthens a question, dove cappero sei stato? “where on earth have you been?”.^[9][12]

French took the word as câpre by 1474, and German as Kaper, first recorded in 1580.^[10]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The word appears in a Florentine translation of the Antidotarium Nicolai.^[2]
• 1299–1309 – Vivaldo Belcalzer uses Mantuan capari.^[2][3]
• About 1340 – Capparo in the Tuscan translation of Palladius.^[4]
• 1344 – Chapperi in the Libro della Mensa.^[4]
• 1474 – French câpre is first recorded.^[10]
• 1536 – Pietro Aretino uses the word for the penis.^[4]
• Before 1566 – Anton Francesco Grazzini uses capperi! as an exclamation.^[4]
• 1580 – German Capperen is first recorded.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The caper bush (Capparis spinosa), a Mediterranean shrub with rounded leaves and large pinkish or white flowers, growing wild in cracks of rocks and walls.^[6][12][11]
2. (cooking) Its flower bud, kept in salt, brine or vinegar and used to flavour food: Ho messo olive e capperi nel sugo.^[6][12][8]
3. (colloquial, chiefly in the plural) Used as an interjection of surprise or admiration: Capperi, che casa!^[6][12][9]
4. (colloquial) Nothing, not a bit: non m'importa un cappero; also after a question word, for emphasis.^[9][12]
5. (slang) The penis.^[6][4]

Word family

• cappereto
• capparidacea

Related words

• Latin capparis
• French câpre

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 11, 470
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier