tumazzu

Sicilian

Etymology

From tuma (“fresh unsalted cheese”) +‎ -azzu.

Noun

tumazzu m (plural tumazzi)

1. (Sicily, countable and uncountable) cheese

   Synonyms: caciu, furmaggiu, (outside of Sicily) casu

   • c. 1786, Giovanni Meli, chapter II, in Don Chisciotti e Sanciu Panza, introduction:

     L’Eroi s’addubba cu pani, e tumazzu; […]

     The hero had his fill of bread and cheese; […]

References

• Traina, Antonino (1868) “tumazzu”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, page 4388
• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1217: “salare il formaggio” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it