pizzaiolo

[prettygoodword]

pizzaiolo (peet-suh-YOH-loh) - n., a pizzamaker.


Yes, there's a word for it -- one common enough it's in many dictionaries. Taken around 1930 from Italian pizzaiolo, a maker and seller of pizzas, which was coined (probably in Naples or at least Neapolitan dialect) from pizza + -aiolo, a suffix of occupation (as well as "pertaining to"), from Latin -āriolus, diminutive of -ārius, an adjectival suffix. Here's an 1830 lithograph of a pizzaiolo:


Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.

Comments

[falkner]

I'm honestly surprised this isn't considered a very common word, haha. [skeeved Italian mind]

[prettygoodword]

I honestly have never heard it used in English.

[full_metal_ox]

But consider the possibilities of a pizzeria called “Pizza YOLO” (although such a name would date awkwardly until and unless it survived to acquire a patina of nostalgia.)

[prettygoodword]

A quick google finds several Pizza Yolos, including in Ontario and Australia.

[full_metal_ox]

Presumably employing pizzaiolos.

[sunlit_stone]

That's brilliant! What a great word :D

[med_cat]

Fun word :)