Italian words from Neapolitan
7 Italian words with Neapolitan in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
fesso
1. The word for “cracked” is inherited from Latin fissus (“split, cloven”), the past participle of findō (“to split, cleave”), the verb behind fendere. The noun continues the Latin neuter fissum (“a…
lava
It is borrowed from Neapolitan lava (“torrent of rainwater”), whose main sense was a stream of rainwater rushing down the streets; Sicilian has the related lavina (“brook”) and lavinaru (“large…
pacchiano
It is borrowed from Neapolitan pacchiano, a southern word. DELI considers this almost certain, and says the same of the derivative pacchianata. D'Ambra's Neapolitan dictionary of 1873 records it…
piccione
The most likely source is borrowed from Neapolitan piccione, the southern outcome of Late Latin pīpiō (“young bird, pigeon”), which is formed on the imitative verb pīpiō (“to chirp, peep”). The…
sfuso
DELI, quoting Alessio, and Nocentini take it as a word from southern Italy: it is borrowed from Neapolitan sfuse (“one by one, in separate pieces”), which rests on a Vulgar Latin *exfūsus, replacing…
tratturo
It is borrowed from Neapolitan tratture, the word of the dialects of Abruzzo and Apulia, written with a final ⟨-ë⟩ in GRADIT. The dialect word comes from Latin tractōrius (“concerned with pulling or…
zoccola
It is borrowed from Neapolitan zoccula in Devoto–Oli's view, a southern word unknown in Tuscany. Most dictionaries derive it from Vulgar Latin *sorcula, a feminine diminutive of Latin sorex…