A few years ago, I remember being in the kitchen with my Italian mother-in-law, helping her with her shopping list for the week.Monday’s dinner will include her famous zucchini Fried dough sticks, so I started to write down this word seriously: zucchini…
“zucchini?Did not you say squash? she asked, staring over my shoulder in bewilderment. What followed was a long debate that continued to divide Italians across the country!
Zucchini vs Zucchini – The Facts
Before we start, let’s get a few things out of the way.both masculine zucchini and women squash exist and are used in modern Italian, as do their respective plural forms zucchini and squash. They are in small form and can be obtained from -ino/a end, from the word pumpkin significance pumpkin or squash.
According to the Italian Devoto-Oli dictionary, the term zucchini officially entered Italian in 1875, while squash Then came a few years later in 1879.The only nuance is squash may refer to the fruit and the plant that produces it, while zucchini Indicates fruit only.
although zucchini Being a little older, there is little consensus on which is the more “correct” term.this Crusader Academya Florence-based association of Italian scholars of linguistics and linguistics, seems I prefer the male version and the equally respectable Trecanythe Italian Encyclopedia, lists squash as the main translator and zucchini As a Tuscan variant.
do you know…?
In English we have introduced many italian words Refer to singular items in the plural.also zucchiniwe still have broccoli, Panini and crayfish Just to name a few.
So which is correct?
At the end of the day, there are no right or wrong answers. Italians tend to choose their preferred terms based on their own regionalism and dialect.This explains why zucchini More commonly used in Tuscany, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Sardinia, while squash heard more in other regionsin the north and south.
In talking to Italian friends from different parts of Italy, it seems that indeed squash have taken strongholds, although some tend to zucchini as singular form and squash For the plural!
As for my mother-in-law, she must have stood firmly on both feet squash camp!
Which term do you use? Let us know in the comments below!
