baccalaru

Sicilian

Etymology

From Dutch bakaliaw, of uncertain origin. Possibly from Vulgar Latin *baccalarium (“the place of the [wooden] stick”), Latin baculum (“stick, staff”), referring to the way cod were split and dried on wooden sticks.

If the element *bak- is a metathesis of *kab- (compare French cabillaud and German Kabeljau from Dutch kabeljauw), then the original form of the word could have been *cabalao, maybe meaning "large-headed fish" (cf. Ibero-Romance words, such as Spanish cabo, cabal, from Latin caput (“head”)).

Cognate to Catalan bacallà, Portuguese bacalhau, Spanish bacalao.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bak.kaˈla.ɾu/
• Hyphenation: bac‧ca‧là‧ru

Noun

baccalaru m (plural baccalari)

1. salt cod, stockfish
2. (vulgar, slang) The female genitalia; the vulva and/or vagina.

   Mi fici tuccari u baccalaru! ― She made me touch her pussy