nannu

Maltese

nannu m (plural nanniet or nannujiet or nannijiet, feminine nanna)

grandfather
Synonym: ġidd
- 2018, Antoinette Borg, Amina, Merlin Publishers, →ISBN:
  Imnalla għajjatlu Fredu u kellu jwaqqaf l-eloġju ta’ nannuh, għax naħseb l-istorja li kien imiss kienet li għandu xi gżira privata.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Used to show respect when addressing old men.
Alternative form: nann

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Likely an Onomatopoeic word of unclear source. Compare, for more, Latin nonnus (“monk; old person”), Proto-Celtic *nana (“grandmother”), Sanskrit नना (nanā, “mother, mama”), Russian ня́ня (njánja, “nurse”). Similar to Ancient Greek: νόννος (nónnos, “father”), νάννας (nánnas, “uncle”) and νίννη (nínnē, “grandmother”). Compare Italian nonno, which gave the sicilianized nonnu.

nannu m (plural nanni, feminine nanna)

(kinship) grandfather
Synonym: nonnu grandfather

jiri comu li ganghi di me nannu ― to shake, to be unstable (literally, “to be like my grandfather's teeth”)

li cartuleggi di so nannu ― past things (literally, “one's grandfather's old papers”)

Chi ura di chiànciri a me nannu!
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Cu voli a so' nannu si lu prega.
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Si me nannu nun fussi mortu, ancora sarrìa vivu.
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(colloquial, by extension) Term to address old men. grandpa, gramps
Local folkloric figure personification of Carnival, a dummy resembling a devil that is lit up at the end of the festivities.
nannu (di) Carnilivari

mòriri lu nannu ― to burn the nannu

Traina, Antonino (1868), “nannu”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, pages 2643–2644
Pasqualino (c. 1790), “nannu”, in Vocabolario siciliano etimologico, italiano e latino (in Italian), volume 3, page 241
Mortillaro, Vincenzo (1862), “nànnu”, in Nuovo vocabolario siciliano-italiano (in Italian), page 562