On two Old Italian Turcisms (1. cassasso 2. pettomagi/pettomanzi)

• Authors: Luciano Rocchi
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper aims to explain the origin of two old Italian words of Turkish origin, cassasso ‘a Turkish police officer’ and pettomagi/pettomanzi ‘Turkish officer(s) dealing with the possesions of the dead’. Contrary to a previous etymology of his, the author’s present opinion is that cassasso derives from the Ottoman-Turkish hasas, a spoken variant of the literary Arabism ‘ases ‘a guard, night-watchman, policeman’. As to pettomagi/pettomanzi, it is possibly a Turkish adaptation of Greek words.

Keywords

EN

old Italian words; etymology; Turkish origin; linguistic history

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 125-128

Contributors

author

Luciano Rocchi

• Ricercatore confermato, L/LIN 01 Glottologia e Linguistica, Dipartimento di Scienze del linguaggio, dell'interpretazione e della traduzione, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Italia