I nomi dialettali degli uccelli pelagici nel Golfo di Napoli

Abstract

This paper examines some dialectal names of pelagic birds in the Gulf of Naples, based on field research conducted with the fishermen of Torre Annunziata. After providing an overview of the names of pelagic birds from the perspective of the folk classification criteria used by the fishermen, the study focuses on two specific terms: pallante (‘Shearwater sp.’) and càcamo (‘Skua sp.’). For these terms, all the available lexicographical documentation is presented, and some etymological proposals are critically discussed. While pallante can be traced back to the Latin pālānte(m), the present participle of pālārī, meaning ‘to wander here and there’, the etymology of càcamo remains unknown, as the previously proposed explanations are not entirely convincing when compared with the broader documentation presented here.