Council for Ligurian Linguistic Heritage

Ligurian Council

DEIZE

Italian-Ligurian (Genoese) dictionary

caspita

intj.
  1. espressione di meraviglia

    bellan [beˈlaŋ]1

    bellandi [beˈlaŋdi]1

    bellicite [beˈlitʃite]1

    belliscimo [beˈliʃimu]

    bacere [ˈbatʃere]

    caspita, hai fatto proprio un ottimo lavoro

    bacere, t’æ fæto pròpio un travaggio mäveggioso

m. n.
  1. eufemismo con valore pleonastico e rafforzativo

    diascoa [ˈdjaskwa]

    dove caspita vi siete ficcati?

    donde diascoa ve sei infricciæ?

    che caspita di idea che abbiamo avuto!

    che diascoa d’idea ch’emmo avuo!

Learn more

1. Spelling of bellin and derivatives

According to the latest and most accurate etymological research conducted by Toso (2015), the term bellin [beˈliŋ] “male sexual organ” is simply a derivative of bello, borrowed from varieties of the Po Valley area with the original meaning of “toy” and specifically “rattle” (from which the meaning of “male sexual organ” later entered Liguria). For this reason, the most coherent spelling of the word (and its derivatives) is with a double consonant (bellin). The same applies to the word’s derivatives (bellan [beˈlaŋ], bellandi [beˈlaŋdi], bellinata [beliˈnaːta], bellinon [beliˈnuŋ], belliniximo [beliˈniːʒimu], etc.). That said, spellings with a single consonant (belin, belandi, belinata, etc.) are also considered fully acceptable, due to their widespread use and to the status of belin as a linguistically emblematic word.

Declensions

m. s m. p f. s f. p
belliscimo belliscimi belliscima belliscime

Bibliography

  • F. Toso, Piccolo dizionario etimologico ligure, Zona, 2015