facchino

Italian

Etymology

From Sicilian facchinu (“jurist called upon to settle disputes related to customs”). Ultimately from Arabic فَقِيه (faqīh, “theologian, jurisconsult, faqih”). Cognate with Spanish faquín, French faquin, Piedmontese fachin. The passage from a customs officer to porter would have occurred as a result of serious economic crisis in the Arab world, when, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the customs officers were forced – to survive – to the sale of fabrics that they themselves transported – on their shoulders – from square to square.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /fakˈki.no/
  • Rhymes: -ino
  • Hyphenation: fac‧chì‧no

Noun

facchino m (plural facchini, feminine facchina)

  1. porter (person who carries luggage)
  2. (metonymically, by extension) roughness, indelicacy, or triviality
  3. a sponge crab or sleepy crab, of species Dromia personata

Derived terms

Further reading
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