pizza

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A flat, round piece of baked bread covered with tomato, cheese, and other toppings.

   We ordered a large pizza with mushrooms and cheese.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Pizza was borrowed from Italian, where the word meant “pie.” It was known in English by the 19th century.

Etymology tree Byzantine Greek πίτα (píta)der. Neapolitan pizzabor. English pizza 1931, borrowed from Neapolitan pizza (1590), the Neapolitan dialectal form of Byzantine Greek πίτα (píta, “cake, pie”). The Greek word is first attested in 1107 and is itself of uncertain origin. The northern Italian dialectal form was pinza, the southern (Apulian and Calabrian) form was pitta. This suggests a derivation from Latin pīnctus (pictus (“painted, smeared”)) or pīnsum, pīnsitum, pistum (“pounded”), but the northern forms appear to be contaminated with pinzare (“to staple”). There are alternative sugges…

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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