truffa

Forms

truffa f (plural truffe)^[1]

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from Old French truffe (“jest; deceit”), recorded in the 13th century, which came from Old Occitan trufa (“joke, mockery”).^[2][3][1] In Occitan the word is a figurative use of the word for “truffle” (on whose origin see tartufo): Spitzer explained it by the disappointment of truffle hunters, who are more often fooled than lucky, and the FEW gives the same reason.^[2][4] GRADIT and Gabrielli trace the Occitan noun to Late Latin tufera (“tuber, truffle”).^[3][5] Devoto saw in it a metathesis of Vulgar Latin *tufra, with the sense developing from “little ball” to “harmless invention” and then “deceit”.^[6]

Other explanations have been put forward: Rohlfs thought it onomatopoeic, and H. Meier first reconstructed Vulgar Latin *tufulāre from Latin tūfus, then a *truf(f)āre parallel to *trubāre, a metathesis of Latin turbāre;^[2] K. Heisig proposed a blend of a Germanic and a Latin word;^[2] DELI finds none of them convincing and calls the origin still an enigma.^[2] Nocentini rejects the Occitan source: the Italian word already appears in the Latin of Salimbene of Parma in the 13th century and as a nickname in Tuscan documents of the 11th and 12th centuries, and the motive of the disappointed truffle hunter is weak.^[4] He derives it instead from Vulgar Latin *tufāre (“to blow, swell”), the source of tronfiare, with an intrusive ⟨r⟩, from Latin typhus (“vapour, smoke”), which is from Ancient Greek τῦφος (tŷphos, “fever, stupor”).^[4][7] The Old Italian sense “empty talk” fits a verb meaning “to blow, swell”, as do Portuguese tufar (“to swell”) and Catalan estufar-se (“to puff oneself up”), and the word often pairs with buffa, from buffare (“to blow”).^[4]

The same word is Old French trufe, Occitan trufa and Spanish trufa (“fib, tall tale”).^[4] The Occitan noun gave the verb Old Occitan trufar, and French had Old French truffer in the 13th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Around 1300 the Italian translation of Albertano da Brescia has truffe in the sense “idle talk”: non ci tenere in truffe; sbrigati di dire (“don't keep us with chatter; hurry up and speak”).^[2] DEI dates the noun to the 13th century in Jacopone da Todi, and Zingarelli gives 1268.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th and 14th centuries truffa meant “trifle, nonsense, chatter”, and the Sicilian Senisio used it to translate Latin nugae.^[8][2] From there it moved to “mockery” and to “deceit, fraud” in the 14th century: Domenico Cavalca, who died in 1342, uses it for a swindle, and Pulci says of a knight that he mai non fece tradimento o truffa (“never committed treachery or fraud”).^[2][10][11]

The legal sense of the crime of obtaining unlawful gain by tricks is recorded from 1884, in a Naples pamphlet on a case of theft and fraud.^[2][12] Panzini recorded truffa all'americana in 1931, matching French vol à l'américaine.^[8] In 1953 the opposition called the electoral law that gave a large majority bonus to the winning coalition the legge truffa; from such uses the noun now follows another noun as an invariable adjective, as in prezzo truffa.^[11][7] French borrowed truffa in the 20th century as a term of criminal law.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – The Italian Albertano da Brescia uses truffe for idle talk.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses truffa for deceit and truffatore for a swindler.^[2]
• 1672 – Trufaldino appears as a stage character in a comedy printed in Rome.^[2]
• 1884 – The legal sense of fraud is recorded at Naples.^[2]
• 1931 – Panzini records truffa all'americana.^[8]
• 1953 – The electoral law of that year is nicknamed the legge truffa.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) fraud: the crime of obtaining an unlawful profit at someone else's expense by misleading them with tricks or deception: È stato denunciato per truffa ai danni degli anziani.^{[3][7][13][11]}
2. (by extension) A swindle, scam or trick; also a price far too high: Dieci euro per un caffè? Che truffa!^{[3][7][13][1]}
3. (archaic) Idle talk, a trifle.^[3][7][9]
4. (after a noun, invariable) Fraudulent, containing a trick: legge truffa, prezzo truffa.^[7][13][9]

Word family

• truffare
• truffatore
• truffaldino
• trufferia
• truffardo
• truffiere
• antitruffa

Related words

• tartufo
• buffa
• French truffe

Usage notes

Truffa all'americana is a trick in which the swindler lets the victim believe he can cheat or rob the swindler in turn.^[11][3] DEI lists a separate dialect word truffa “earthenware flask”, from the Marche and Umbria, connected with cutrufo.^[8]

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 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
3. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f 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 d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3920
9. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse