italian | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

1690 entries found.

"female ballet dancer," 1792, from Italian ballerina, literally "dancing girl," fem. of ballerino "dancer," from ballo "a dance" (see ball (n.2)). The Italian plural form ballerine formerly sometimes was used in English.

Pisa

Italian city, from Etruscan, of uncertain meaning. Related: Pisan.

ricotta (n.)

kind of Italian cottage cheese, 1877, earlier ricoct (1580s), from Italian ricotta, literally "recooked," from fem. past participle of Latin recoquere, from re- "again" (see re-) + coquere "to cook" (from PIE root *pekw- "to cook, ripen").

bel canto

1894, Italian, literally "fine song." See belle + chant.

scenary (n.)

1690s, obsolete nativized form of Italian scenario (see scenario).

archipelago (n.)

c. 1500, from Italian arcipelago "the Aegean Sea" (13c.), from arci- "chief, principal," from Latin archi- (see arch-) + pelago "pool; gulf, abyss," from Medieval Latin pelagus "pool; gulf, abyss, sea," from Greek pelagos "sea, high sea, open sea, main" (see pelagic).

The elements of the word are Greek, but there is no record of arkhipelagos in ancient or Medieval Greek (the modern word in Greek is borrowed from Italian), so the word perhaps is an Italian compound or an alteration in Italian of Medieval Latin Egeopelagus, from Greek Aigaion pelagos "Aegean Sea." The Aegean being full of island chains, the meaning was extended in Italian to "any sea studded with islands" (a sense attested in English from c. 1600) and to the islands themselves. Related: Archipelagian; archipelagic.

verism (n.)

"the theory that art and literature should strictly reproduce truth," 1892, from Italian verismo, from vero "truth," from Latin verus "true" (from PIE root *were-o- "true, trustworthy") + -ismo, Italian form of -ism.

totalitarianism (n.)

1926, first in reference to Italian fascism, from totalitarian + -ism.

palazzo (n.)

"large and imposing building," 1660s, from Italian palazzo (see palace).

sinfonia (n.)

1773, from Italian sinfonia, from Medieval Latin symphonia (see symphony).

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