zeppa

Italian

FWOTD – 22 October 2018

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): ^*/ˈd͡zep.pa/, (traditional) ^*/ˈt͡sep.pa/
• Rhymes: -eppa
• Hyphenation: zép‧pa

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Lombardic *zippa, a late borrowing from Latin cippus or alteration of the earlier West Germanic *kippa. Compare dialectal German Kipfe (“axe, stave”), English chip, Dutch kip (“plow-beam”).

Noun

zeppa f (plural zeppe)

1. a wedge-shaped piece of wood
   • 1996, Gennaro Tampone, Il restauro delle strutture di legno, Hoepli, →ISBN, page 180:

     La zeppa che irrigidisce il nodo è probabilmente successiva.

     The wedge that strengthens the vertex is probably of a later date.

2. in printing, a small piece of lead used as a spacer or a brief article inserted to fill a page
3. a type of word-game
4. a platform shoe
   • 2013, Rachelle Bernstein, Le donne dalla caviglia in giù. Storia delle scarpe e delle donne che le hanno indossate, tr. by Ilaria Katerinov, Mondadori (publ.).

     Nonostante i dubbi della nobildonna, Salvatore riuscì a convincerla a indossarne un paio, una domenica mattina a messa, e con grande sorpresa della signora le zeppe si riverlarono comodissime.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Etymology 2

Adjective

zeppa f sg

1. feminine singular of zeppo

Derived terms

• inzeppare

Etymology 3

Verb

zeppa

1. inflection of zeppare:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

• zappe