Tag: old

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Petrusino from Ancient Greek πετροσέλινον (petrosélinon)

Parsley is an aromatic cooking herb, used in many recipes of Neapolitan cuisine. In Neapolitan language it is called Petrusino and comes from the ancient Greek petrosélinon and from the archaic Latin petroselinum.

O’ petrusino (the parsley) looks good everywhere. In sauces, soups, meat and even pasta. You can find it here every day at the table, both at lunch and dinner. In Naples it is used above all to season hot soups, the ones that feed Neapolitans throughout the winter.

From this culinary logic one of the most famous proverbs of the Neapolitan originates:“petrusino ogni mmenesta” (petrusino in every soup). What does it mean and why is it said so? Well when a person is really intrusive, always present in your life, you can call him precisely o’ petrusino and tell him that he is just a petrusino ogni mmenesta.

Obviously this idiom can also be used in a context of friendship and family. For example, when a person is really curious and wants to know everything about events and conversations, he will behave like a petrusino. He mostly meddles in conversations that don’t concern him. This happens especially to Neapolitan children who want to immediately enter the speeches of adults. Parents and grandparents usually scold them with a loving tone saying: “Here, petrusino every mmenesta has arrived!”.

The children of Naples love to be called in this way because it means that they are already behaving like they grow up and that, in some way, they are getting into the good graces of adults who appreciate their precocious curiosity.

Over time, children who heard themselves called petrusino when they were young should learn to be more reserved with strangers as they continue to behave excessively curious within the walls of their home.

When the great Neapolitan families get together, those who had been a petrusino as children continue to be a petrusino even as adults. They do this mainly to carry on a family tradition and make their grandmothers and mothers laugh, remembering the sweet times of their childhood.

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‘Nciarmà from French (En)Charmer

There are many words of the Neapolitan dialect that derive from other languages and that, once they have entered the Neapolitan, lose or transform their meaning. One of them is ‘Nciarmare. Inciarmare or ‘nciarmare comes from the French verb (En)charmer that in French means to enchant, to amaze. But in Neapolitan it doesn’t mean just that. ‘Nciarmare is a more articulated sort of “arrangiare”. In Naples they say ‘Nciarmà when someone wants to organize something clandestinely or when he wants to organize a plan behind someone’s back.

This verb is also used to indicate gossiping. If two neighbors are on the landing or look out from adjacent balconies, they are sure (if they are gossips) that they will start talking about someone, that is, they will start to ‘nciarmà.

But, we said, that ‘nciarmà is also a more extensive form of “arrangiare”. ‘Nciarmare in fact also refers to the ability of a Neapolitan to organize something, a lunch with friends, or simply the construction of an object, with few tools available but achieving a record goal.

If I am able to ‘nciarmare, I am truly the King of all the genius.

As we have said several times, some words that derive from other languages become in the Neapolitan expression of irony but also of contempt, of pungent criticism. If, for example, a woman is unable to dress well or to match the colors of her clothes, it is certain that the other women (especially the gossips) will tell her that when she dresses, “lei si ‘nciarma”. That is, the woman in question does not know how to dress and that she leaves the house with a style completely inappropriate for the common taste.

Let’s move on to the irony of the male gender. You know, the men in the house are not cookery magicians. And so if a wife who comes home late from work asks her husband to prepare dinner, it is possible that on returning home the woman finds food that she does not think is cooked well. Undercooked, too seasoned, inappropriate on the palate. The Neapolitan wife will then say to her husband: “Cosa hai inciarmato? (What the hell have you did)?”, That is, Cosa hai fatto? Dovremmo mangiare questa schifezza stasera? (Should we eat this junk food tonight?).

And finally we come to an example of pure irony. Two boys who are usually lazy and do nothing from morning to night are surprised by their friends or their parents at home cleaning or building something. A more unique than rare event. Spontaneously then those who discover them will ask with surprise: “What are you doing?” And they will promptly reply: “Stamm ‘nciarmann!”, that is, “we are doing something new and different for us, aware of the fact that it will not be good because we are not used to dealing with household chores. So before criticizing us, know that we ourselves are not appreciating the quality and result of what we are doing.

It therefore seems almost impossible to contrast the dialectic and the genius of the Neapolitan dialect. A language capable of having the answer ready for every single occasion and full of words and topics for every situation.

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Ancient English Familiarity French Greek History Intimacy Italian Language Latin Napoletano Napoli Neapolitan Past Teacher Translation

The words of the ancient Neapolitan. The past remembers the future.

Neapolitan is also a “language in the language”. There are many words of the Neapolitan dialect that are no longer used today. Words that our grandparents used, which once bothered us because they seemed vulgar. We are missing the same words today because they found our identity.

When we were young these words of the past were rough in our ears and we made fun of those who used them. For example, I remember the word Muccaturo which in Italian means handkerchief. This word comes from the Catalan mocador and also from the French mouchoir. The Muccaturo empirically makes the sense of dirt, of that dirt that comes out of your nose. The rheum you emit when you sneeze end up right there, in the cotton handkerchief that was kept in the coat pocket and washed only when it had become unusable. To me the image of the muccaturo was really annoying and I remember that when I was a child it scared me, because I didn’t know how to use it when I had a cold. But it is also true that it was of great help to me, because the tissue (the clinex) irritated my child’s skin. The muccaturo was really useful, practical, perhaps unhygienic but safe and faithful. Today in Naples nobody talks about it. The handkerchief is called ‘o fazzuletto (from italian: fazzoletto) and almost all citizens use the paper handkerchief.

Another word that is part of the old Neapolitan is Crisommola, which in Italian means apricot. Crisommola derives from the Greek χρυσοῦν μῆλον (chrysoûn mêlon = golden fruit), and it is a really strange way to call a fruit. The crisommola is perhaps one of the most beautiful fruits. Sweet, orange, tender and soft. Yet the Neapolitans called it this word, difficult to pronounce and annoying to the ears. Today nobody uses the word crisommola. Almost everyone in Naples says “Albicocc” (from Italian Albicocca). It may happen that some greengrocers want to clarify the terminology, specifying that what they are selling you is just a kilo of crisommola. I’ve always made confusion between orange and apricot. Because in Naples the apricot is called crisommola and the orange purtuall (in the past in Naples the oranges were mainly imported from Portugal). And at lunch and dinner almost all my family corrected me because I did not know how to distinguish between the two fruits. I admit that even today I am very confused and tend to never use these two words. Yet crisommola and purtuallo make better the sense of origin, the roots of the words of the Neapolitan language.

Another old word that always made me smile is Mustacce (which in Italian means baffi ) and derives from the Byzantine Greek moustákion and the French moustache. In Naples, the Mustacce are those very thick baffi, the ones that used people in the 1800s and that made a man a real man. All the men in the old portraits and photos have the “mustacce” and those same men were proud to wear them. Today the Mustacce are confused with the beard and represent a single image of masculinity.

Having mustaches meant being grown up, going from childhood to adolescence.

An adult man absolutely had to have mustaches.

Why is it so important to remember the words of the past? Those words make our story and also help us to understand the present.

It is always said that the past was a better place than the present. I can’t say if this statement is correct but I definitely know that Neapolitan cannot be a language that belongs only to the present. The Neapolitan is the past that always returns, the future that calls the past, the present that exists only thanks to what has been and what will be.

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