Italish

English

Etymology

From Italy +‎ -ish. Compare Italic.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: ĭtălʹĭsh, IPA^(key): /ɪˈtælɪʃ/
• (US) enPR: ĭtălʹĭsh, ītălʹĭsh, IPA^(key): /ɪˈtælɪʃ/, /aɪˈtælɪʃ/

Adjective

Italish (comparative more Italish, superlative most Italish)

1. (archaic) Pertaining to Italy, its people, or language; Italian.
   • 1849, John Bale, Select works of John Bale D.D. Bishop of Ossory:

     first Patron S. Frances, as we find in the history of his idolatrous feast, and also in the book of conformities of Frances to Christ, written by an Italish friar called Bartholomew Pisanus.

   • 1902, Lewis Einstein, The Italian Renaissance in England:

     “O Italish England,” he wrote, “what has become of your ancient fortitude and might; since Tuscanism has come in, Vanity is above all else, and next comes villainy; there is no one who is not a minion; grand words cover feeble deeds.”

   • 1960, Geoffrey Bullough, Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare:

     His independence incurred the wrath of other historians such as Leland, and his Catholicism enraged Bale, who declared that he ‘hath in this point deformed his writings greatly, polluting our English Chronicles most shamefully with his Romish lies and other Italish beggarys’.

   • 1995, Brian Wilson Aldiss, The secret of this book: 20-odd stories:

     By coincidence, I am now travelling aboard another Otranto, a spaceship of Italish manufacture. Its engines are silent as it slips through interstellar space towards an artificial Golconda. Not a whisper comes from them.

2. Made in the Italian manner, or appearing Italian.

Anagrams

• Lasithi, lithias