Etymologically
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pizza

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈpit.t͡sa/[1]

Forms

pizza f (plural pizze)[1]

Etymology

The word is first recorded in Medieval Latin, as from Medieval Latin pizza (“flat cake”) at Gaeta in 997 and at Penne in the Abruzzi in 1195.[2][3] Further Medieval Latin records come from central and southern Italy: Sulmona (1201, “pizzas of bread”), the papal curia (1307), L'Aquila and Celano (14th century) and Pesaro (1531).[2][4] It reached the standard language from the dialects, above all Neapolitan.[3][5] Its origin is disputed;[6] Nocentini lists four lines of explanation, each with strong arguments and none that accounts for every variant and its distribution.[6]

DELI regards the question as settled by Princi Braccini (1979), who derives the word from the Germanic of Italy, Lombardic *pizzo (Lombardic or Gothic), the equivalent of Old High German bizzo or pizzo (“bite, morsel; piece of bread; flat cake”) (modern German Bissen), a noun from bīzan (“to bite”).[2][3] The meaning would have moved from “bite” to “morsel” to “piece of bread” and then to “flat cake”, as Latin buccella (“small mouthful; small loaf”), which glosses render with the Old High German word, did.[2] The form Friulian petta of the Friulian area would continue Gothic *bita.[2][6] Treccani and Wiktionary also mention this explanation.[5][1]

Nocentini and Devoto–Oli prefer a Romance origin: a shortened past participle of Vulgar Latin *pi(n)siāre (“to pound, crush by hand”) (the verb behind pigiare), through a variant with a strengthened consonant, made feminine by agreement with Latin placenta (“flat cake”) in a phrase meaning “crushed cake”.[6][7] Sabatini–Coletti calls this probable, and Gabrielli derives the word more simply from pīnsō (“to crush”).[8][9] The variants pinza of Lazio and Venetian pinsa of the upper Adriatic coast fit this family.[6]

A third line looks to the Mediterranean: the Calabrian and Salentine pitta continue the flat bread of the Balkans and the Near East, Modern Greek πίτα (píta), ultimately Aramaic pittā, recorded from the 2nd century AD.[6][10] Nocentini accepts this source for the southern form only, and Wiktionary compares Byzantine πίτα (píta) (12th century).[6][1] DEI and the GDLI suggest a Latin picea (“of pitch”) “(cake)” as a calque of Ancient Greek πίττα (pítta, “pitch”).[4][11] The old derivation from pizzo (“point”), which Devoto and Prati gave, runs up against the early meaning “flat cake”.[12][13][4][2]

From Italian the word passed into most European languages and beyond: French pizza is recorded from 1888, German Pizza from 1879 and pizza from 1825.[14][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is from 1535, when B. Di Falco notes that a focaccia is called pizza in Neapolitan.[2][15] GRADIT and DIFIT date the word to 1565, and DEI cites Annibal Caro in the 16th century.[3][14][4]

Semantic evolution

Until the 19th century pizza was a general name for flat cakes of bread, sweet or savoury: Ramusio describes cakes of maize eaten in place of bread, and Garzoni lists three pizze of white bread.[11] Caro's translation of Longus uses it for an egg-shaped cheese, and Tommaseo (1871) records it as the Umbrian name for an oiled flat bread.[16][2]

The Neapolitan dish made the word famous.[2] The pizzaiolo who makes it is described in 1858, and in 1884 Matilde Serao told how a Neapolitan opened a pizzeria in Rome that soon failed.[2] In 1900 De Cesare listed pizzas among the plain foods that King Ferdinand II loved, and in 1905 Panzini defined the dish for readers outside Naples.[2] In 1961 Peruzzi noted that pizza and pizzeria had recently spread through Italy and abroad.[2]

Migliorini recorded two figurative senses in 1942: in Rome, a bore (che pizza!), and in cinema slang, a reel of film in its flat round can.[2] In Roman speech a pizza is also a slap in the face.[7][1]

Timeline

  • 997 – Medieval Latin pizza “flat cake” is recorded at Gaeta.[2][3]
  • 1195 – It is recorded at Penne in the Abruzzi.[2]
  • 1535 – B. Di Falco notes that a focaccia is called pizza in Neapolitan.[2][15]
  • 1825 – English pizza is first recorded.[14]
  • 1858 – Pizzaiolo “pizza maker” is recorded in Naples.[2]
  • 1879 – German Pizza is first recorded.[14]
  • 1884 – Matilde Serao writes of a pizzeria opened in Rome.[2]
  • 1888 – French pizza is first recorded.[14]
  • 1942 – Migliorini records the senses “bore” and “film reel”.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (cooking) pizza: a round flat bread of leavened dough topped with tomato, mozzarella or other ingredients and baked in a hot oven, a Neapolitan speciality: Il sabato sera ordiniamo sempre due pizze.[3][7][15]
  2. A focaccia or flat cake of wheat or other flour, sweet or savoury, made in many regional varieties: la pizza di Pasqua.[3][7][5]
  3. (figurative, colloquial) A very boring person or thing, a bore: Quella conferenza è stata una pizza![3][7][8]
  4. (cinema) The flat round can holding a film reel, and the reel itself.[3][7][8]
  5. (regional, Rome) A slap in the face.[7][1]

Word family

  • pizzaiolo
  • pizzeria
  • pizzaiola
  • pizzetta
  • pizzata
  • focaccia
  • pinza
  • pigiare
  • English pizza

Usage notes

Common kinds include the pizza margherita, the pizza marinara and the pizza capricciosa;[3][15] pizza al taglio is sold by weight in rectangular or triangular pieces.[3][15] In Calabrian, Salentine and Sicilian dialect pizza also means the penis, a word that Cortelazzo and Marcato derive from a base meaning “point”.[17][4] Old Italian had another pizza meaning “itch”, from the verb pizzare.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 q r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2961
  5. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  14. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  15. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  17. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET