A word a day

Everyday I will post the definition and origin of either a word or expression.

Today the word is "Paparazzi".




First a bit of clarification. "Paparazzi" are not newspaper writers. The term "paparazzi" applies only to the obnoxious photographers (or, lately, "videographers") who stalk celebrities. Furthermore, there is a world of difference between the "paparazzi" and real photojournalists who work for real (i.e., more text than pictures) newspapers and magazines.



It's no accident that you almost never hear "paparazzo," the singular form of "paparazzi." "Paparazzi" almost always travel in packs. While "paparazzi" were much in the news a few years ago in connection with Princess Diana's untimely death, neither the word (which first appeared in English around 1968) nor the "paparazzi" themselves are new. "Paparazzi" take their name from the celebrity photographer Signor Paparazzo, a character in Frederico Fellini's 1960 film "La Dolce Vita." Fellini evidently didn't like the paparazzi any more than today's celebrities do. Before Fellini's film made "paparazzo" synonymous with "pushy creep with a camera," it was an Italian dialect word meaning "buzzing insect."