pezza

From a Late Vulgar Latin *pettia, *pettium, from Late Latin pettia (“portion”). Compare French pièce, Catalan and Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza, Romanian pâță, Slovene peča.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛt.t͡sa/
• Rhymes: -ɛttsa
• Hyphenation: pèz‧za

pezza f (plural pezze)

1. bolt (of cloth)
2. patch (of fabric)
3. rag
4. (heraldry) ordinary

   le pezze onorevoli ― the honourable/honorable ordinaries

• pezzo

• pazze

Cognate with Italian pezza.

pezza f (plural pezzi)

1. piece

   Synonym: feḍḍa

2. piece of cloth

   pezza vagnata ― dimwit (dull person) (literally, “wet cloth”)

   fari pezzi càudi ed ogghiu ― to do things on the spot (literally, “to prepare hot cloths and oil”)

   pezza di càntaru (literally “chamber pot towel”)

   1. patch (small piece of cloth sewed to a piece of clothing to cover a hole)

      mèttiri na pezza ― to patch up

      mittiricci la pezza e l'unguentu ― to work, be committed in something (literally, “to put the patch and the ointment”)

      fari di <> pezza di pedi ― to beat <> up (literally, “to turn <> into shoe patches”)

      Nun è pezza chi si cusi e scusi.

      It's something stable, indissoluble

      (literally, “It's not a patch that can be sewed and unsewed.”)

      1. (figuratively) patch, remedy
      2. (hairdressing) razor strop

         In full: pezza di la varva

      3. (cooking) potholder
   2. a rag (tattered cloth); (in the plural) rags

      jiri a lu spitali pri pezzi ― (please add an English translation of this usage example) (literally, “to go to the hospital for rags”)

      cu na pezza 'n culu ― ragged (of a person, wearing rags) (literally, “with a patch in the arse”)

      cu na pezza davanti e n'àutra arreri ― (same as above) (literally, “with a patch in front and one behind”)

      nun aviri na pezza ― to be extremely poor (literally, “to not have a rag”)

3. (uncountable) rag (material)

   di pezza ― made out of rag, (figuratively) fake, faulty

   pupu di pezza ― ragdoll, (figurative) stupid person

   ciuri di pezza ― fake flowers

   lingua di pezza ― stammerer, someone with a speech disorder (literally, “faulty tongue”)

4. portion of cheese; wheel, block
   • 1371–1381, Angelo Senisio, Il Caternu, volume 1, line 2, page 232:

     Item per pani thumini iij et vinu quartari v et furmaiu pecia j per lu tundiri tr. x.

     Like for bread, thumini 3 and wine quarters 5 and cheese wheel 1 for the wool tr. 10.

5. coin, more or less 5 lire
6. cultivated field

   pezza di cacòcciuli ― artichoke field

   pezza di fràuli ― strawberry field

7. (botany) bud (unfolded blossom)

• → Maltese: biċċa

• Traina, Antonino (1868), “pezza”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, pages 3026–3027
• “pezza”, in TLIO – Tesoro della lingua italiana delle origini