pizza
[peet-suh]
- a flat, open-faced baked pie of Italian origin, consisting of a thin layer of bread dough topped with spiced tomato sauce and cheese, often garnished with anchovies, sausage slices, mushrooms, etc.
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Origin of pizza
1930–35; < Italian pizza (variant pitta), perhaps ultimately < Greek; Cf. pḗtea bran, pētítēs bran bread
Also called pizza pie.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
pizza
- a dish of Italian origin consisting of a baked disc of dough covered with cheese and tomatoes, usually with the addition of mushrooms, anchovies, sausage, or ham
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Word Origin
C20: from Italian, perhaps from Vulgar Latin picea (unattested), from Latin piceus relating to pitch ²; perhaps related to Modern Greek pitta cake
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Word Origin and History for pizza-pie
pizza
n.
1935, from Italian pizza, originally "cake, tart, pie," of uncertain origin. The 1907 "Vocabolario Etimologico della Lingua Italiana" reports it is said to be from dialectal pinza "clamp" (from Latin pinsere "to pound, stamp"). Klein suggests a connection via loan-translation with Medieval Greek pitta "cake, pie," from Greek pitta "pitch" (cf. Latin adjective piceus "of pitch"). See also pita.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper