Il confine fluido dell'etimologia romanesca e la diacronia del lessico capitolino

This chapter addresses two related issues. Firstly, it discusses the fuzziness of the borders (in terms of methods and research object) of etymological work on Romanesco, which mirrors on the one hand the early Tuscanization and relexification from the standard language of this Italo- Romance variety, unparalleled across Italy, and on the other hand its peculiar sociolinguistic status and impact on the lexicon of (spoken) standard Italian starting with the 20th century. Secondly, the chapter highlights some recurring patterns in semantic change (dysphemism and conventionalization of euphemism), which are to be observed in the diachrony of Romanesco and are related – it is argued – with the abovementioned relexification. The two issues are discussed referring to a series of lexemes which have made it into today’s standard Italian. Most of these, such as e.g. racchia ‘ugly woman’ or mignotta ‘prostitute’, originate from the dialect of Rome, while some, such as inghippo ‘glitch, catch’, arguably entered the standard language via Romanesco but turn out to be of southern Italian origin.