napoletano

Forms

napoletano (feminine napoletana, masculine plural napoletani, feminine plural napoletane)^[1] Old Italian forms include napolitano, napuletano, napulitani and napollitana.^[2] The form napolitano is still found, but is less common.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin neāpolītānus, the adjective of Neāpolis (“Naples”).^[5][6][7][1] The Latin name of the city is from Ancient Greek Νεάπολις (Neápolis, “new city”), a compound of νέος (néos, “new”) and πόλις (pólis, “city”).^[6][1][8] Devoto explains the Italian form as the Latin word crossed with the Italian city name Napoli.^[9] The GDLI instead treats it as a derivative of the city name with the ethnic suffix ⟨-etano⟩, and notes that the variant in ⟨-itano⟩ is southern.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Sienese document of 1277–1282, where the word means “of the city of Naples”.^[2] DELI gives napuletano in a text of 1281–1297 and napoletano in Boccaccio in 1353, and notes that Napolitanon, written in Greek letters, is recorded as a surname at Crotone in 1219.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for the language of Naples, as a noun for a native of the city, and for the territory around it.^[2] Boccaccio's Decameron describes a lady as similmente napoletana (“likewise a Neapolitan”).^[10] From the 14th to the 19th century il Napoletano was also the name of the mainland part of the Kingdom of Naples.^[7][11]

Later senses name things from Naples: a strong cigar, now obsolete, a thin kind of long pasta for soup, and a small bitter rectangular chocolate.^[7][12] The feminine napoletana became a noun for a combination of ace, two and three of one suit in the card game tressette (1829), and for the Neapolitan coffee pot (caffettiera napoletana, 1950–1956, napoletana alone, 1958).^[5][6]

French has napolitain from 1549 and à la néapolitaine from 1556, and German used Napoletani for the chocolates in 1838.^[13]

Timeline

• 1219 – Napolitanon, in Greek letters, is recorded as a surname at Crotone.^[5]
• 1277–1282 – The adjective appears in a Sienese document.^[2]
• 1281–1297 – The form napuletano is recorded.^[5]
• 1353 – Boccaccio writes napoletano.^[5]
• 1549 – French Nëapolitain is first recorded.^[13]
• 1829 – Napoletana is recorded as a term of the card game tressette.^[5]
• 1838 – German Napoletani names the chocolates.^[13]
• 1958 – Napoletana alone names the coffee pot.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Neapolitan: of or from Naples, or relating to its people, history or culture.^[7][14][3]
2. alla napoletana: in the Neapolitan way, especially of cooking: spaghetti alla napoletana.^[14][15]

Noun

1. A native or inhabitant of Naples.^[7][14][16]
2. (singular only) The Neapolitan dialect, spoken in Naples and widely across southern Italy.^[7][14][3]
3. (singular, capitalized) The territory around Naples.^[7][16]
4. (historical) The mainland part of the Kingdom of Naples, from the 14th to the 19th century.^[7][14]
5. A small, bitter, rectangular chocolate of hard paste with no filling.^[7][14][3]
6. (usually plural) A kind of soup pasta like thin, long spaghetti or vermicelli.^[7][16][12]
7. (obsolete) A strong cigar.^[7][12][15]

Word family

• napoletana
• napoletanamente
• napoletaneria
• napoletanesco
• napoletanismo
• napoletanità
• napoletanizzare
• napoletaneggiare

Related words

• Napoli
• partenopeo
• Latin neapolitanus

Usage notes

Carte napoletane are the 40-card Italian playing cards with the suits of cups, coins, swords and clubs.^[15][14] Partenopeo is a synonym of the noun.^[15] Tommaseo noted that napoletano was more common than napolitano, and that an adjective for the ancient city would be Neapolitano.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
4. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2546
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 292
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 174
11. ^ 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse