gazzetta
Italian
Etymology
Borrowed in the 17th century from Venetian gazeta (“newspaper”), from gazeta dele novità (literally “a gazeta (halfpenny) of news”), named for the cost (one gazeta) of the newspaper.
The etymology of the coin’s name is disputed.[1] Most likely, it is from Venetian garzia (1518), variant of carzie (“a coin of little value”) (dialectal Greek χαρξια (charxia)), ultimately from Ancient Greek χαλκός (khalkós, “copper, copper alloy”), itself probably ultimately a borrowing. Traditionally it is usually considered a diminutive of Latin gāza (“treasure”) (as in Medieval Latin gazetum), from Ancient Greek γάζα (gáza), of Iranian origin, probably ultimately Median (Persian گنج (ganj)).
An alternative explanation derives it from German Kreuzer (“a small coin with a cross”), due to a cross on one of the coin’s faces.
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -etta
Noun
gazzetta f (plural gazzette)
Usage notes
- Capitalised: any of several local newspapers.
Derived terms
Descendants
References
- ^ Mario Infelise (2016) “The History of a word: Gazzetta / Gazette”, in Joad Raymond, Noah Moxham, editors, News Network in Early Modern Europe[1], Leiden Boston, Brill, →ISBN, archived from the original on 22 April 2017, pages 243–260
- Italian terms borrowed from Venetian
- Italian terms derived from Venetian
- Italian terms with unknown etymologies
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Iranian languages
- English terms derived from Median languages
- English terms derived from German
- Rhymes:Italian/etta
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian feminine nouns