pizza

Forms

pizza f (genitive pizzae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[1] According to the NGML it is borrowed from Italian pizza, which may in turn come from Greek πίττα (pítta); the NGML marks the Greek source with a question mark.^[1] Du Cange connected it instead with the Italian word pinza.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the NGML is a document of 997 in the Codex Caietanus, which lists a payment of duodecim pizze et una spatula de porco, “twelve pizzas and a shoulder of pork”.^[1] The word there means a flat cake.^[1]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval documents it is a flat cake, paid as a due in kind together with meat.^[1][2] Du Cange glosses it with the classical placenta, “flat cake”.^[2]

Timeline

• 997 – A document in the Codex Caietanus records twelve pizze among dues paid with a shoulder of pork.^[1]
• 1195 – A charter printed by Ughelli lists shoulders of pork, hens and pizzas among the dues.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A flat cake, a kind of hearth bread.^[1][2]

Related words

• placenta

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT
2. ^ a b c d e du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre