papero

Forms

papero m (plural paperi, feminine papera, diminutive paperétto or paperìno or paperòtto or paperòttolo or paperùccio, augmentative paperóne, pejorative paperàccio)^[1] Old forms are Old Italian paparo and the plural Old Italian papari.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin paparus (“young goose”), a word of imitative origin already recorded in Late Latin.^[4][3][2] The GDLI finds the Latin form in Oribasius and calls the Italian word Tuscan, above all Pisan, and southern: there it took the place of Late Latin auca (“goose”).^[3] DELI, GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Wiktionary simply call it onomatopoeic, an imitation of the bird's call.^{[5][6][7][1][8]}

Meyer-Lübke kept it apart from the family of Latin pappō (“to eat”): like the Abruzzese forms and Spanish parpar (“to quack”), it is an independent imitative formation.^[9][1] Tommaseo compared the Greek verb that Pollux uses for the cry of geese.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine document of 1277–1296;^[2][5][3] DELI dates it 1293, in the Nuovi testi fiorentini, where an account mentions money owed “when we bought our goslings” (quando ci conperoe i paperi nostri).^[2][5][3] The sense is a young goose, male or female.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A Sienese toll statute lists oca o paparo among the poultry taxed at one denaro, and Boccaccio tells of a goose sold for a penny “with a gosling thrown in” (un'oca a denaio ed un papero giunta).^[3][10] The TLIO also records a pun in which papero stands for a supporter of the pope.^[2] The figurative sense of a foolish, inept man is dated 1869, in Giuseppe Rovani.^[5]

The feminine papera appears in Boccaccio in 1353.^[5] Since 1863 (Fanfani) it has also meant a slip of the tongue, especially an actor's fluffed line.^[5][4] Tommaseo saw in it an allusion to the goose;^[5][4] DELI prefers a comparison with prendere un granchio “to make a blunder”, and Nocentini favours Lurati's idea of a calque from French theatre slang, where French canard “duck” also means a false note.^[5][4] Paperone (1989) is the Italian name of Disney's Uncle Scrooge, Zio Paperone.^[4]

Timeline

• 1293 – Paperi “goslings” appear in a Florentine account.^[5][2]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses the feminine papera.^[5]
• 1863 – Papera “slip of the tongue” is recorded by Fanfani.^[5]
• 1869 – Giuseppe Rovani uses papero for a foolish man.^[5]
• 1871 – Paperina is recorded in the Tommaseo–Bellini dictionary.^[5]
• 1989 – Paperone “very rich man”, from the Disney character, is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A young goose, especially a male; a gosling or gander: Il contadino portava due paperi al mercato.^{[6][7][11][1]}
2. Loosely, a goose of any age, sometimes an adult gander.^[12][11]
3. (colloquial) A duckling.^[1]
4. (figurative) A foolish, inept man.^[6][5]

Word family

• papera
• paperino
• paperina
• paperone
• impaperarsi
• paperotto
• paperello

Related words

• anatroccolo
• anatra
• oca

Usage notes

A papero (or a papera), as in camminare a papero, means walking with the toes turned outward.^[12][7][6] Proverbs include i paperi menano a bere le oche, said when those who know less try to teach those who know more, and buon papero e cattiva oca, of someone good when young and bad in old age.^[12][13][10] A separate southern dialect word papero, an egg laid without a shell, comes from Latin (ovum) apalum, from Greek hapalós “soft”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 516
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 738
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 517