farfalla

Galician

Verb

farfalla

1. inflection of farfallar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Italian

Etymology

Perhaps from Old Italian parpaglione, from Latin papiliō (“butterfly”). Compare Old French paveillon, Catalan papalló, Provençal parpalhos, Lombard parpaja. The f is difficult to account for, though it might be due to the Tuscan gorgia. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Alternatively, from the dialectal Arabic word in Maltese farfett, Tunisian Arabic فرططو (farṭaṭṭu) / فرفطو (farfaṭṭu), which is from Berber; compare Kabyle aferṭeṭṭu (“butterfly, moth”). Forms with a second -f- are apparently attested within Berber as well, but are at any rate explainable. For the -ll-, the Arabic emphatic [tˤ] could easily have been interpreted by southern Italians as their retroflex [ɖ] and then replaced with the cognate [l] as the word moved northwards (compare Sicilian beddu versus Italian bello).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /farˈfal.la/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -alla
• Hyphenation: far‧fàl‧la

Noun

farfalla f (plural farfalle)

1. butterfly
2. bow tie
3. (usually in the plural) pasta in the shape of butterflies or bow ties
4. (swimming) the butterfly stroke
5. throttle valve, butterfly valve

Derived terms

• sfarfallare

See also

• bruco m
• falena f

Further reading

• “farfalla”, in Collins Italian-English Dictionary
• “farfalla” in Dizionario Italiano Olivetti, Olivetti Media Communication
• “farfalla”, in Vocabolario Treccani on line (in Italian), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2026
• Pianigiani, Ottorino (1907), “farfalla”, in Vocabolario etimologico della lingua italiana (in Italian), Rome: Albrighi & Segati