carcarazza

Sicilian

Alternative forms

• carcarazzu m

Etymology

Borrowed from Byzantine Greek καρακάξα (karakáxa, “jay”), influenced by carcariari (“to cackle, squawk, of birds”).

Noun

carcarazza f (plural carcarazzi)

1. magpie (Pica pica)

   Synonyms: ciàula, pica, gazza

   vuci di carcarazza ― discordant voice (literally, “magpie's voice”)

2. a talkative woman; chatterbox
3. a discordant music instrument (Is there an English equivalent to this definition?)
4. a bad spinning top, which while spinning hops and screeches

   Hypernym: strùmmula (“spinning top”)

   fari lu cori comu na carcarazza

   to have one's heart pounding

   (literally, “to have one's heart like a hopping spinning top”)

Derived terms

• carcarazzedda

 

References

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 504: “la gazza” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• Traina, Antonino (1868) “carcaràzza”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, pages 704–705
• Pasqualino (c. 1790) “carcarazza”, in Vocabolario siciliano etimologico, italiano e latino (in Italian), volume 1, page 259