AUG 18, Italian loanwords: cicerone

Authors' Note:    Guides for tourists in Italy are often given the interesting name cicerone (plural -oni). The label is derived from the Italian Cicerone (chee-che-ROH-neh), the surname of the legendary Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (SIH-suh-roh in Anglo-Latin, 106–48 BCE). The term has been applied to Italian antiquarians, as well as to talkative guides and interpreters.

 

   The Roman family's name was related to the word for chickpeas (ciceri in Latin, ceci in Italian). ‘Baloney’, an anglicism derived from the globally popular Italian sausage mortadella bolognese, has come in American slang to mean exaggerated claims or nonsense.

 You can review our entire poetic outpouring about Italian loanwords by proceeding to a post on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'; click HERE.