Culacino

[LukeJavan8]

Interesting word culled from a list of a few months back:
(originally posted by Bailey)


- mark left on the table by a moist glass - CULACINO
[Italian origin]

[Slava]

I admit I like this word, but I have to quibble with it a bit. Like so many others of our odd-ball suggestions (sorry, Bailey), it doesn't seem to have left much of a trail behind it. And for a word that implies meaning a trail, that's even worse.

I've tried to track this one down on the Internet, but all I've come up with is the same definition, over and over again. Same wording, same vague (It.) reference. No one anywhere has decided to provide an Italian derivation, and no one has ever provided a pronunciation. (I'm assuming ku-LACH-i-no, but I've been known to be wrong.)

Do we have any Italian speakers out there who might feel inclined to weigh in?

[LukeJavan8]

I'm inclined to KU-la-CHI-no.

[Slava]

I'm inclined to KU-la-CHI-no.

If I get this right, you're going for a minor/major stress pattern, perhaps rendered thus: KU-la-CHI-no?

[LukeJavan8]

Sure, if it keeps you happy.

[Slava]

Here's another take on the meaning, with a specific tie to our world here:

A drink-ring or circular stain left when a book is used as a coaster for a drinking glass. A handy Italian term which has no one-word English equivalent (and, from the perspective of book people, one of the most useful terms to be found in Howard Rheingold's entertaining book They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases).

http://www.ilab.org/eng/glossary/eng/132-culacino.html

Still no word on the pronunciation, though.

CulAchino or CulacIno?

[Audiendus]

I don't speak Italian, but according to Wikizionario (the Italian version of Wiktionary) culacino has two other meanings also:
1. the end (extremity) of a sausage (the circular cut end, perhaps?);
2. [rare] the bottom of a glass.

Wikizionario says it is the diminutive of culaccio, which apparently means a rump of meat. It does not make the pronunciation clear, but I know that the diminutive suffix ino is normally stressed on the 'i' (compare cappuccino). So I think Luke is probably right about the pronunciation.

[Slava]

I don't speak Italian, but according to Wikizionario (the Italian version of Wiktionary) culacino has two other meanings also:
1. the end (extremity) of a sausage (the circular cut end, perhaps?);
2. [rare] the bottom of a glass.

Wikizionario says it is the diminutive of culaccio, which apparently means a rump of meat. It does not make the pronunciation clear, but I know that the diminutive suffix ino is normally stressed on the 'i' (compare cappuccino). So I think Luke is probably right about the pronunciation.

I'm leaning to that pronunciation, too. One question I have is why did culacino lose a c?

[saparris]

I'm not a speaker of Italian, but I found the following explanation, which might explain the double c:

In Italian, all consonants except h can be doubled. Double consonants (i consonanti doppie) are pronounced much more forcefully than single consonants. With double f, l, m, n, r, s, and v, the sound is prolonged; with double b, c, d, g, p, and t, the stop is stronger than for the single

consonant.http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare104a.htm

[LukeJavan8]

Thanks, Wikisaparris!
You are just a fountain of info, overflowing the ffounttainn.

[saparris]

You can call me Morton. When I rain, I pour.

[Slava]

You can call me Morton. When I rain, I pour.

Thanks for your work on figgering some of these clues out. Thou art the salt of the Earth.

[LukeJavan8]

It's the Kudzu juleps.

[saparris]

It's the Kudzu juleps.

And they're leaving culacinos on my desk.

[Slava]

And they're leaving culacinos on my desk.

Sounds like someone needs a coaster. Interesting etymology, too. Check it out.

Is the "s" plural the way to go, or would Italian prefer an "i"?