ventresca

Forms

ventresca f (plural ventresche)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ventrisca (“belly of the tuna”), from Latin venter (“belly”), as Wiktionary, Meyer-Lübke and Sabatini–Coletti give it.^[1][2][3] Battisti and Alessio and the GDLI trace the Vulgar Latin form to the phrase venter Faliscus (“stuffed pork belly”) in Varro, named after the Falisci, with its suffix and its feminine gender remade by attraction.^[4][5] Meyer-Lübke lists Old French ventresche, Catalan ventresca and Spanish ventresca beside the Italian word.^[2]

GRADIT, Devoto–Oli, Zingarelli, Treccani and Gabrielli instead see it as formed in Italian, from Italian ventre + -esca.^{[6][7][8][9][10]} Prati also held it to be formed in Italian, because its oldest sense is “belly”, and thought that ventresche and Portuguese ventrisca (“belly of a fish”) came from the Italian word.^[11]

The origin of venter is uncertain: de Vaan sets up Proto-Indo-European *(H)ued-ro- (“belonging to the belly”) and reports Hamp's view that it is the same word as uterus.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Ottimo commento on Dante, in the 14th century, where the word means the belly of a person in general.^[13][4] It describes a serpent with six feet that seizes one of three spirits by the belly (gli prese la ventresca).^[14]

Semantic evolution

In old texts the word was a jocular or plain name for the human belly, used by Burchiello in the 15th century and in the Ciriffo Calvaneo.^[4][15][8] Francesco Berni, before 1535, used it for a dish: a pork belly stuffed with meat, eggs, cheese and herbs and pressed, a sense that is now archaic.^[13][11][9]

The sense that prevails today, the white belly meat of the tuna preserved in oil, is recorded in a nautical dictionary in 1937, where it also stands for tarantello.^[13] Petrocchi's dictionary of 1891 already has “tuna belly”.^[4] In Tuscany the word names the streaky belly bacon called pancetta elsewhere, as Panzini noted in 1923.^[13][9]

Timeline

• 14th century – The Ottimo commento uses ventresca for the belly.^[13][4]
• Before 1535 – Francesco Berni uses it for a stuffed pork belly.^[13]
• 1850 – Rambelli records it for cured pork belly.^[4]
• 1891 – Petrocchi records the sense “tuna belly”.^[4]
• 1923 – Panzini records the Tuscan sense “pancetta”.^[13]
• 1937 – A nautical dictionary records ventresca for tuna belly in oil.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (cooking) The white, fatty and prized belly meat of the tuna, preserved in oil: un panino con ventresca e pomodori.^{[6][7][9][10]}
2. (regional, Tuscany and central-southern Italy) Pork pancetta, streaky belly bacon.^[6][7][3][9]
3. (archaic) A salume made of pork belly stuffed with meat, eggs, cheese and herbs.^[6][7][3][9]
4. (archaic, jocular) belly, pancia.^[6][7][8][9]

Related words

• ventre
• ventricolo
• Latin venter

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
3. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4014
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 754
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1044
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 4, 1786
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET