The Italian Word History of Zany

Hello,

I finally finished reading the 1213 pages of “Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable” this week and I’m so glad I did. I’ve been at it for more than a year. No, I didn’t only read one book during that time, I also read about 65 other books. I took my time with this one, jotting down notes, grouping words into possible future blog posts, mystery words for my radio slot, and of course ideas and inspirations for future Wordfoolery books.

Gathering candidate words for the blog and for the books is a long job. It takes me at least three years to gather the words before I even consider writing the book – which is why I usually work on word lists for several topics at the same time. I can already tell that this particular dictionary will be a rich source for me. I’ve used it as a reference on blog posts during the year, as you may have noticed.

Anyhow, I made it to the letter Z, my favourite letter in the alphabet, and found zany there. I hope you enjoy its history.

Zany, as you probably know, is defined as “amusingly unconventional and idiosyncratic”. You might describe a friend’s sense of humour or sense of style as being zany. You might enjoy a zany sit-com on the television. It’s a word the Italians gave us. Not the Romans, the Italians, the Venetians to be precise.

Zany entered English in the late 1500s to mean a “comic performer”. It came from French zani, and before that from Italian zanni (a zany or a clown). The word zanni was originally a name, Zanni. In the Venetian dialect of Italian this was their word for Gianni, which is the shortened or pet form of Giovanni (John). The closest equivalent in English would be Jack as the pet form of John.

Zanni was a standard character in the Commedia dell’Arte. I’m not an expert on this particular form of theatre (maybe check out this article instead) but it was popular from the 1500s in Italy and also across Europe. It had an influence on “Punch and Judy” shows and pantomime in the British Isles. It was comedy-focused and used standard characters, improvisation, and masks.

Zanni was played as a clever servant and trickster. He mimicked the other characters and probably dates back to the 1300s. Two facts I loved – apparently the longer the nose on his mask, the more foolish he was and he was always hungry.

The idea of a zany being a foolish person with wild movements and ideas gives us the modern meaning of zany humour and style.

Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

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