2891: Linguine and Linguistics Nov 20, 2024

The diminutive suffix -ini is not really productive in English, but it is found in a few loan words, like ‘zucchini’, ‘fettuccine’ and ‘linguine’ (also spelt ‘linguini’), and clearly understood enough that it has been used to form new words like ‘broccolini’ (a trademark). 

In the case of ‘fettuccine’, it is unclear where a “little fetta” came from, though it means “little slice”. Linguine’ is related to ‘linguistics’ etc. coming from ‘lingua’ meaning ‘tongue’. The connection between ‘tongue’ and ‘language’ is common across many tongues, as it were, but not so commonly used in English anymore. In the case of the pasta it is of course related to the shape. 

Tortellini means little cake, related to contort and ‘panini’ is unsurprisingly “small bread”. On the fact that all of these are plural, see more here.