trippa

Forms

trippa f (plural trippe)^[1] Medieval Latin documents of the 14th century have the plural trepes at Verona (1319) and tripa at Rome, both with a single p.^[2][3] The Romagnol form is trepa.^[3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain, and DELI finds none of the proposals fully satisfying.^[4][5][6]

For Nocentini it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *trippa, probably taken from Ancient Greek τρύπη (trýpē, “hole”) (also τρῦπα (trŷpa)), of the family of τρυπάω (trypáō, “to bore”), which also gave trapano.^[2][7] This revives a proposal of Holthausen (1906–07) that the FEW had rejected.^[2][4] Nocentini answers the objections: the Latin /i/ reflects the late pronunciation of Greek ⟨υ⟩ as /i/, the double /pp/ has parallels in Late Latin (cappa, coppa), and the shift from “hole” to “belly” has a parallel in buzzo, which has the same jocular and slightly scornful tone.^[2]

The explanation most often given derives the word from Arabic تَرْب (tarb, “omentum”).^[4][1][8][9] Nocentini finds it hard on phonetic grounds and notes that Corominas rejected it.^[2] DELI adds that the Arabic word had already passed into Medieval Latin, Italian and Spanish in another shape, as Medieval Latin zirbus and zirbo, and that the routes by which it would have reached the several Romance languages remain unclear.^[4][10] Corominas instead derived the Spanish word from destripar (“to disembowel”), from Latin exstirpō (“to root out”), but this would require either spread from one centre, which the dates of the records do not allow, or independent parallel formations.^[2][4] The FEW considered the word expressive.^[4][10]

The same word is French tripe, Occitan tripa, Catalan tripa, Portuguese tripa and Spanish tripa.^[2][3][11] Körting considered the origin of the Latin base wholly obscure.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a statute of Viterbo of 1384, where the plural trippe names the stomach of ruminants used as food.^[12] DELI dates the culinary sense from Citolini (1561) and the sense “belly” from Luigi Pulci, before 1484.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

From the cooked stomach of cattle the word passed, jokingly, to the human belly: Pulci's Morgante has e nella trippa una punta disserra (“and thrusts a point into his belly”), and Varchi remarked that common people called the body or belly trippa.^[4][13] Tommaseo records popular comparisons for a big belly (una trippa come una botte, a belly like a barrel) and avere la trippa agli occhi, said of a woman close to giving birth.^[13]

The augmentative trippone meant “very paunchy person” by 1598 (Florio); a note to the Malmantile (1688) says that those who eat without measure are called tripponi and ventroni.^[4] Words for the trade followed later: trippaio, the tripe seller (1865), and tripperia, his shop (1891).^[2][4] In tanning, trippa is also the hide stripped of hair and flesh and ready to be tanned.^[5][14][9]

Timeline

• 1319 – Medieval Latin trepes is recorded at Verona.^[3][2]
• 1384 – The plural trippe appears in a statute of Viterbo, for tripe as food.^[12]
• 1427 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.^[15]
• Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci uses trippa for the belly.^[4][5]
• 1561 – Citolini uses it for the stomach of cattle as food.^[4]
• 1598 – Florio records trippone “very paunchy person”.^[4]
• 1865 – Trippaio “tripe seller” is first recorded.^[2]
• 1891 – Petrocchi records tripperia.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (cooking) tripe: the stomach of ruminants, especially cattle, cleaned, boiled and cut into strips, then cooked in many ways: trippa alla fiorentina, trippa alla romana.^{[5][7][8][14]}
2. (colloquial, humorous) The belly of a person, especially a large one: mettere su trippa, to put on weight;^{[5][7][15][6]} riempirsi la trippa, to eat a lot.^{[5][7][15][6]}
3. (tanning) A hide freed of hair and flesh and ready for concia.^[5][14][9]

Word family

• trippone
• tripperia
• trippaio
• trippaiolo
• trippetta
• trippino
• intrippare
• strippare
• strippata

Related words

• buzzo
• zirbo
• French tripe
• Spanish tripa

Usage notes

Non c'è trippa per gatti (literally “there is no tripe for cats”), a Roman phrase, means that there is little or nothing to be had.^[15][1] DEI records trippa di dama (1729) as a plant name, the clary sage.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3904
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
7. ^ a b c d 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli