piñata

See also: pinata

English

A piñata.

Alternative forms

• pinata

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Italic *pīnos

Latin pīnus

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂

Proto-Italic *-ā

Latin -a

Latin pīnea

Italian pigna

Italian pignattabor.

Spanish piñatabor.

English piñata

Unadapted borrowing from Mexican Spanish piñata, from piña (“pinecone”), from Latin pinea, because its paper cover (on traditional making) resembles one. Alternatively from Spanish via Italian pignatta (“clay pot”), from a Chinese custom allegedly introduced by Marco Polo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɪnˈjɑː.tə/, /pɪnˈjæ.tə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

piñata (plural piñatas)

1. (Latin American culture) A doll or other decorated container that is filled with candy and hit with a hammer or a stick by blindfolded children during birthday parties or other celebrations until the candy falls out.
2. (figuratively) Something which is repeatedly hit or damaged over a period of time.
   • 2020 August 5, Drachinifel, 3:29 from the start, in The Battle of Jutland - Clash of the Titans - Part 2 (Jellicoe vs Scheer)‎^[2], archived from the original on 12 September 2022:

     […] Wiesbaden, largely crippled, nevertheless refuses to sink for the moment, and will become something of a steel piñata for passing British capital ships over the next few hours whilst throwing the odd torpedo back in retaliation.

   • 2024 October 16, Michael Kimmelman, “Paul Rudolph Was an Architectural Star. Now He’s a Cautionary Tale.”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     When it opened, it prompted rapturous reviews akin to what, many years later, greeted Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao. But the building soon became a piñata for everything wrong with modern architecture.

Translations

candy-filled container that is hit with a stick

• Arabic: پِينْيَاتَا f (pīnyātā), پِنْيَاتَا f (pinyātā), بِينْيَاتَا f (bīnyātā)
• Azerbaijani: piniyata
• Bengali: পিন্যাতা (pinnata)
• Bulgarian: пиня́та f (pinjáta)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 皮納塔 / 皮纳塔 (pínàtǎ)

• Czech: piñata f
• Dutch: piñata (nl) f
• Esperanto: pinjato
• Finnish: piñata (fi)
• French: piñata (fr) f, pignata (fr) f, pinata (fr) f, pinyata f, piniata f
• German: Piñata (de) f, Pinata f
• Greek: πινιάτα (el) f (piniáta)
• Hebrew: פיניאטה
• Italian: pentolaccia f, pignatta (it) f
• Japanese: ピニャータ (pinyāta), ピニャタ (pinyata)
• Kannada: ಪಿನ್ಯಾತ (pinyāta​), ಪಿಞಾತ (piñāta​)
• Korean: 피냐타 (pinyata)
• Macedonian: пиња́та f (pinjáta)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: piñata f

• Polish: piniata (pl) f
• Portuguese: pinhata f
• Russian: пинья́та (ru) f (pinʹjáta)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пѝњата f

  Roman: pìnjata (sh) f

• Spanish: piñata (es) f
• Swedish: piñata c
• Telugu: పిన్యాత (pinyāta​), పిఞాత (piñāta​​​)
• Thai: ปีญาตา
• Turkish: pinyata
• Ukrainian: пінья́та f (pinʹjáta)

Verb

piñata (third-person singular simple present piñatas, present participle piñataing, simple past and past participle piñataed)

1. To hit something or someone with sticks after having filled them with candy.
   • 2015 (November 20) "Zombie Broheims", episode 14 of Pig Goat Banana Cricket

     Cricket: "Don't pinata me!"

Further reading

• piñata on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Aptian, patina, tai-pan, taipan

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish piñata.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pinˈjaː.taː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pi‧ña‧ta
• Rhymes: -aːtaː

Noun

piñata m (plural piñata's, diminutive piñataatje n)

1. piñata (decorated container filled with candy)

French

Alternative forms

• pignata, pinata, pinyata, piniata

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.ɲa.ta/

Noun

piñata f (plural piñatas)

1. piñata

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Italic *pīnos

Latin pīnus

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂

Proto-Italic *-ā

Latin -a

Latin pīnea

Italian pigna

Italian pignattabor.

Spanish piñata

Borrowed from Italian pignatta (“kind of terracotta pot”), from pigna (“pinecone”), because of the pot's resemblance to them.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /piˈɲata/ [piˈɲa.t̪a]
• Rhymes: -ata
• Syllabification: pi‧ña‧ta

Noun

piñata f (plural piñatas)

1. piñata (doll filled with candy)

Derived terms

• baile de piñata
• Domingo de Piñata
• piñatería

Descendants

• → Catalan: pinyata
• → Dutch: piñata
• → English: pinata, piñata
• → Portuguese: pinhata

Further reading

• “piñata”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

Anagrams

• pitaña