πίτα

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Attested in the pita or flatbread sense from 1107.

Dialectological maps show that in Central Italy one has pizza while in the North and Tuscany one has pinza. Only in South Apulia and Calabria one has pitta; this suggests a derivation from Latin pīnctus, pictus (“painted, smeared”) or pīnsum, pīnsitum, pistum (“pounded”), however the northern forms in Italy seem to be contaminated with pinzare (“to staple”). A form peta even coexists in some areas, and according to a different theory, the forms could be derived from an Ancient Greek feminine πηκτή (pēktḗ) of πηκτός (pēktós, “compacted, congealed”) or even from πήτεα (pḗtea, “bran”). While a relation to Lombardic bizzo (“bit, chunk”) is phonetically and semantically dubious, another suggested derivation is from Illyrian, Albanian pite, reflected also in Albanian petë (“layer”) and Romanian pată (“blotch, stain, macula”) and possibly Ancient Greek πιττάκιον (pittákion, “patch; tablet; ticket”) — a word only attested from the 5^th century, first in the comic Δεινόλοχος — and derived from the Proto-Indo-European root from which Albanian pite (“gruel”) is inherited; but the substrate could also be Jewish Aramaic פִיתָּא (pītā, “piece of bread”), from Proto-Semitic related to crumbs, breaking into tranches, akin to Hebrew פַּת (paṯ, “bread”) and the Arabic forms in the root ف ت ت (f-t-t), also Tigre / Tigrinya / Amharic / Ge'ez ፈተተ (fätätä, “to break off to portion, to crumb”) with a well-developed root.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ta/

• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ta/

Noun

πίτα • (píta) f (genitive πίτας); first declension

1. Alternative form of πίττα (pítta), Attic form of πίσσα (píssa)
2. (Byzantine) pie

Descendants

• Modern Greek: πίτα (píta)
• → Aromanian: pitã
• → Bulgarian: пи́та (píta)
  • → Romanian: pită
  • → Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: пи̏та

    Latin script: pȉta

    • → Hungarian: pite (or via Romanian)
    • → Slovene: píta
• → Ladino: pita
• → Macedonian: пита (pita)
• → Megleno-Romanian: pită
• → Ottoman Turkish: پیته (pite), پیده (pide) — colloquial
  • Turkish: pide
  • → Azerbaijani: pidə

References

• πίτα - Babiniotis, Georgios (2010) Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας Etymologikó lexikó tis néas ellinikís glóssas [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek language] (in Greek), Athens: Lexicology Centre
• Alinei, Mario (1963) “Gr. πήτϵα > it. pizza, it. mer. pitta”, in Romance Philology vol. XVII no.1, Berkeley: University of California, pages 108-110
• Kramer, Johannes (2012) Lateinisch-romanische Wortgeschichten. Herausgegeben von Michael Frings als Festgabe für Johannes Kramer zum 60. Geburtstag (in Italian), Stuttgart: ibidem, →ISBN, pages 149–162, particularly 155–156, 158
• Kriaras, Emmanuel ((Can we date this quote?)) Dictionary of Medieval Vulgar Greek Literature (1100–1669 (in Greek), volumes I–XXVIII, page 320
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “pide”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• “pt”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–

Greek

Etymology

Inherited from Byzantine Greek πίτα (píta).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ta/
• Hyphenation: πί‧τα

Noun

πίτα • (píta) f (plural πίτες)

1. pita, pie (type of pastry, flat unleavened bread usually used for making pies)
2. (figuratively) pie (expressing a whole available for distribution)

   ένα μεγαλύτερο κομμάτι από την πίτα του εθνικού εισοδήματος

   éna megalýtero kommáti apó tin píta tou ethnikoú eisodímatos

   a bigger share of the pie of national income

3. (slang) very drunk, stoned

   Γίνομαι πίτα στο μεθύσι. ― Gínomai píta sto methýsi. ― I become stoned from drinking.

Declension

Declension of πίτα

	singular	plural
nominative	πίτα •	πίτες •
genitive	πίτας •	πιτών •
accusative	πίτα •	πίτες •
vocative	πίτα •	πίτες •
Plural genitive is rarely used.

Related terms

Compounds

• βασιλόπιτα f (vasilópita, “king cake”)
• κολοκυθόπιτα f (kolokythópita, “courgette pie”)
• λουκανικόπιτα f (loukanikópita, “sausage pie”)
• πατσαβουρόπιτα f (patsavourópita, “cake with squashed phyllo”)
• πορτοκαλόπιτα f (portokalópita, “orange cake”)
• πρασόπιτα f (prasópita, “leek pie”)
• σπανακόπιτα f (spanakópita, “spinach pie”)
• τυρόπιτα f (tyrópita, “cheese pie”)
• χορτόπιτα f (chortópita, “greens pie”)

Descendants

• → Catalan: pita
• → Czech: pita
• → Danish: pita
• → Dutch: pita
• → English: pita
• → Finnish: pita
• → French: pita
• → German: Pita
• → Hebrew: פִּיתָּה (pī́tā)
• → Italian: pita
• → Ottoman Turkish: پیته (pite), پیده (pide) — colloquial
  • Turkish: pide
  • → Azerbaijani: pidə
• → Persian: پیتا (pitâ)
• → Polish: pita
• → Portuguese: pita
• → Russian: пи́та (píta)
• → Slovak: pita
• → Spanish: pita
• → Swedish: pita
• → Ukrainian: пі́та (píta)

See also

• γλύκισμα n (glýkisma, “sweet, any kind of dessert”)
• πίτα on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^el

Further reading

• πίτα, in Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής [Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek], Triantafyllidis Foundation, 1998 at the Centre for the Greek language