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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Marco: Ciao a tutti and welcome to Italian Culture Class Lesson Number 10.
Cinzia: Italian Names Lesson Number 10 - Davide and, finally, Cinzia.

Lesson focus
Marco: Yes, today we have Cinzia as our last name of this ten part series.
Cinzia: Yes, just to close and end with the best.
Marco: Okay, so as you know Cinzia is a male name.
Cinzia: What?!
Marco: No, it is a female name. I'm joking, I’m joking. So also on today's lesson, we'll be taking a look at historical origins of the names, their onomastici and patron saints.
Cinzia: Yes, yes, come on, I want to know about my name.
Marco: First of all, we want to take a look at Davide, masculine, and Davida, feminine.
Cinzia: Hm, Davida. It sounds pretty weird. It is actually very rare.
Marco: It is. But don’t go saying to people that their names are weird. Maybe Cinzia is even weirder.
Cinzia: Okay, maybe I don’t use the proper English words but, it just sounds...
Marco: Strange.
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: Okay, Now the origins of the name Davide in both its masculine and feminine form are to be traced back to the Jewish proper name Dawid, that means “beloved by God”. This name was later adopted in Greek as Dayéd and Latin as David, keeping its former meaning.
Cinzia: And the onomastico is celebrated on the 29th December in honor of the Jewish prophet and second king of Israel, David. According to the biblical accounts, David ruled the history of Israel in the 10th century before Christ.
Marco: Oh yes, he’s the famous guy who fought the giant Goliath.
Cinzia: Yes, the legend of Davide e Golia.
Marco: David and Goliath. Nice. How do we say it in Italian?
Cinzia: Davide e Golia.
Marco: I didn't hear it the first time sorry.
Cinzia: Okay, wake up, Marco. Svegliati
Marco: Yes, mi sveglio, mi sveglio. He is also the patron saint of singers, musicians and poets.
Cinzia: Today, we don’t have derivatives for Davide, which is actually normal because usually we have derivatives of male names, and not for female names.
Marco: True, very true. And also usually derivatives are also for the common names but in this case we have Davida whose altered versions are...
Cinzia: Davidia, Davina.
Marco: And diminutives…
Cinzia: Davidina.
Marco: Nice Davidina.
Cinzia: Yes, little Davida.
Marco: But there are no compound names with either Davide or Davida, right?
Cinzia: No, no compound names. What about the famous people? There is one called Davide Bernasconi - I didn't know.
Marco: You didn't know?
Cinzia: No.
Marco: I think you might have heard something of his singing because he is best known with his seldom name Davide Van de Sfroos, strange name right?
Cinzia: Yes, it's not a typical name and actually I don't think it's a typical Italian singer.
Marco: No, no, no. He actually sings and writes only in the Lombard dialect, nel dialetto lombardo or lumbard.
Cinzia: Oh yes, so the dialects spoken in the northern Italian region Lombardia.
Marco: Yes, yes. If you do have time please check out his songs because you can really hear a different kind of Italian actually.
Cinzia: Yes, that is true. And this singer is appreciated in the Italian speaking canton of Switzerland.
Marco: Very interesting. And what about today's second name that is...
Cinzia: My name!
Marco: Okay, so tell us about your name.
Cinzia: My beautiful name.
Marco: So as we said Cinzia is a feminine name, right?
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: No masculine.
Cinzia: No.
Marco: No.
Cinzia: Cinzio doesn't actually exist.
Marco: Maybe it existed but don’t hear it...
Cinzia: No, no, no. My name’s etymology is to be found in the classic Greek.
Marco: Greek again? What’s new about that?
Cinzia: Okay, it comes from the Greek name Kynthios. Well Kynthios was a masculine name and the feminine one is Kynthia.
Marco: And originally these two Greek names were the epithets of the Apollo and Artemis, and these name originated from their birthplace, a mountain located on the floating island of Delos.
Cinzia: So the first one was the god of “art, medicine, sunand truth”, “medicina, sole, verità e arte”.
Marco: While his sister was the goddess of “hunting, wilderness and the moon”, “caccia, zone selvagge e la luna”. And she, I mean the goddess, not Cinzia, was very famous for representing an independent spirit, complementary but not subordinate to the masculine spirit.
Cinzia: I see, I understand.
Marco: So very strong person, a very strong goddess and a very strong name also.
Cinzia: Yes, so very matching with my personality actually.
Marco: Yes, maybe your parents, when they gave you the name Cinzia, they were thinking of a baby under the patronage of the virgin warrior goddess.
Cinzia: Wow! And not by chance my surname is Guerriero.
Marco: It means....
Cinzia: Warrior.
Marco: I can see you with a spear in one hand, a shield in the other and charging against enemy.
Cinzia: Yes. Nice image.
Marco: Yes.
Cinzia: I have an onomastico but it is celebrated on the 1st of November, with all the other Saints.
Marco: Hey, you like big families, don't you?
Cinzia: Yes, of course.
Marco: So you have an onomastico with many people together, many friends together.
Cinzia: I'd like my own onomastico.
Marco: No, no, no, no. What about derivatives of Cinzia?
Cinzia: Okay, we have diminutives like Cinzietta, Cinziotta. My parents used to call me Cinzie’ or Cinzio’, which is actually the diminutive of Cinziotta or Cinzietta, you know?
Marco: So the diminutive of diminutive.
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: Uh, scary.
Cinzia: Yes and then we have Cinziettina, Cinziolina, or simply Ci.
Marco: What about compound names?
Cinzia: We don't have compound names either for Cinzia or Cinzio.
Marco: And a famous person with the name Cinzia is....
Cinzia: Oh, she is Cinzia Leone and she is an Italian actress.
Marco: She does a lot of theatre, doesn't she?
Cinzia: Yes, more than cinema or TV.
Marco: And what's the genre where she likes to play in?
Cinzia: Oh, satiric.
Marco: Oh. Well you’re rather satirical yourself.
Cinzia: Yes, that's true. But anyway, you know what? I’ve never met so many people called Cinzia and not even between famous people.
Marco: Really? It's a rather rare name. Yes, I do have a few friends called Cinzia apart from you. And I can really count them on the fingers of one hand.
Cinzia: Yes. Actually, you know, I only know one person.
Marco: Only?
Cinzia: Yes, called Cinzia. So I’m unique.
Marco: Let's go back to Cinzia Leone. In this satiric genre, what does she like to play about?
Cinzia: In her comedies, she likes to talk about women and, actually, stereotypes of women. The ones who tend to be seen either as sexy, attractive and caring moms at the same time. So she tries to underline the different personalities and the different situations in which women can be.
Marco: Using stereotypes as a lait motif.
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: Nice.
Cinzia: So very interesting. The plays “Poche idee ma molto confuse” and “Rodimenti”.
Marco: Wait, wait wait...let me translate those first, aww those are fun. “Poche idee ma molto confuse” means “few though confused ideas”.
Cinzia: Yes and “Rodimenti”.
Marco: And well, Rodimenti in Italian means something that is gnawing at you from the real base, right?
Cinzia: Yes, yes. Rodimenti is actually a mix between the verb “rodere”, to gnaw, and the noun “rudimenti”, rudiments. I think that's all... I’m sorry because I'd like to hear more about my name, but I think actually it's the end of Culture Class Italian Names.

Outro
Marco: Yes, it's the end of the short 10 lesson series on Italian names. If you want more, please let us know so we can search for other names. We've already been start to search for other names that we've been asked already. But, hey, we can search for even more.

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