nucipèrsicu

Sicilian

Etymology

Compare Italian noce pesca, pesca noce (“nectarine”), Venetan naspèrsego (“nectarine”). The term originally must have traditionally meant “nectarine” in Sicily as well, as also evidenced by Maltese nuċiprisk (“nectarine”), where it then got contaminated with the similar sounding cipressu (“cypress”), taking on its meaning.

Noun

nucipèrsicu m

1. (Sicily) cypress (Cupressus sempervirens)

   Synonyms: cipressu, persicara

   Alternative form: nucipersu

2. (Sicily) cypress seed

   Synonym: gaddarizza

   Alternative forms: nucipèrsica, nucipersa

3. (Calabria) nectarine (Prunus persica var. nucipersica)

   Alternative forms: nucipèrzica, nucipèrzicu

Descendants

• → Maltese: nuċiprisk

References

• Traina, Antonino (1868) “nucipèrsicu”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, page 2769
• Mortillaro, Vincenzo (1862) “nucipèrsicu”, in Nuovo vocabolario siciliano-italiano (in Italian), page 593
• Pasqualino (c. 1790) “nucipersicu”, in Vocabolario siciliano etimologico, italiano e latino (in Italian), volume 3, page 333