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gnocchi

[nok-ee, noh-kee; Italian nyawk-kee]
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noun (used with a singular or plural verb) Italian Cookery.
  1. a dish of little dumplings made from potatoes, semolina, flour, or a combination of these ingredients.
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Origin of gnocchi

1890–95; < Italian, plural of gnocco, orig. Upper Italian (Veneto), perhaps cognate with Tuscan nocca, nocco knuckle < Langobardic *knohha joint; see knuckle
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for gnocchi

Historical Examples

  • And we are going to have gnocchi done in a special way with cheese.

    December Love

    Robert Hichens

  • The gnocchi and the olives must certainly have disagreed with me.

  • Pasticcio di Maccheroni is an excellent macaroni pie, and Gnocchi di Patele are little knobs of paste boiled like macaroni.

  • Then drop the gnocchi one by one into boiling salted water and boil for ten minutes.

British Dictionary definitions for gnocchi

gnocchi

pl n
  1. dumplings made of pieces of semolina pasta, or sometimes potato, used to garnish soup or served alone with sauce
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Word Origin

Italian, plural of gnocco lump, probably of Germanic origin; compare Middle High German knoche bone
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for gnocchi

n.

1891, from Italian gnocchi, plural of gnocco, from nocchio "a knot in wood," perhaps from a Germanic source akin to knuckle. So called for their shape.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper