babbaluci

== Sicilian == === Alternative forms === babbaluciu vavaluci, vavalucu, vavalucia, bucalaci === Etymology === From a conflation of babbucia, from Maghrebi Arabic بَبُّوش (babbūš, “snail”), ultimately from Vulgar Latin *babosu. Compare Maltese bebbux (“snail”). buvalaci, from Ancient Greek βουβαλάκιον (boubalákion), from βούβαλος (boúbalos, “buffalo”) +‎ -άκιον (-ákion, diminutive suffix). Literally, “small buffalo”, with a semantic shift to “snail”. An outdated folk etymology derives this from vava (“spit, saliva”) +‎ luci (“light”), because of the shining trail the animal leaves. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): [babbaˈluçɪ] Hyphenation: bab‧ba‧lù‧ci === Noun === babbaluci m (plural babbaluci) snail Synonyms: ruccaloru, scataddittu, vavalaggiu, lumaca, cavalaggiu, cignu, bardareddu scala a babbaluci ― spiral staircase (literally, “staircase like a snail”) babbaluci d'acqua ― marine/fluvial mollusk (literally, “water snail”) babbaluci cilesti ― purple storm snail (Janthina janthina) lu babbaluci trizzìa la tartuca ― pot calling the kettle black (literally, “the snail makes fun of the turtle”) ==== See also ==== mammaluccu (“slug”) === References === Traina, Antonino (1868), “babbaluci”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, page 475 AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 459: “la chiocciola” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it “babbalùcio”, in Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, supplement 2004, UTET, 2004, page 123a “babbaluci”, in TLIO – Tesoro della lingua italiana delle origini Pasqualino (c. 1790), “babbaluci”, in Vocabolario siciliano etimologico, italiano e latino (in Italian), volume 1, page 174 Mortillaro, Vincenzo (1862), “babbaluci”, in Nuovo vocabolario siciliano-italiano (in Italian), pages 103–104 Souag, Lameen (2018), “Berber Etymologies in Maltese”, in International Journal of Arabic Linguistics, volume 4, number 1, pages 190–223