Subject: A pizzoral history.
Author: Huinesoron
Posted on: 2015-03-04 11:46:00 UTC

I've just looked up 'pizza' in the Oxford English Dictionary.

They claim that the word derives from post-classical Latin dating back to at least AD 997, and may have come in from 'an unattested Langobardic cognate of Old High German bizzo bite, piece bitten off, morsel, lump, cake made of flour'. (Which means that Germany was calling some form of food something close to 'pizza' before Italy was... but I digress.)

The first attested use in the English literature is actually an English-Italian dictionary from 1598 - that's over 150 years before the USA was founded - where it was listed as 'a kind of cake or simnell or wafer'. In 1825 Baroness Bunsen was fed it (along with 'ham, and cheese, and frittata'), and in 1845, Francis Coghlan's Handbook for Italy described it as 'a popular cake made of preserves or of new cheese'.

But the best reference dates to 1878, and a book called Dolce Napoli:

'Anoint [dough] profusely with oil of olive, and dab in pieces of garlic, anchovy, strong cheese, rancid bacon, and whatsoever else may be highest in flavour and lowest in price; put into a hot oven, bake, and thou hast pizza.'

hS

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