Re: Can anyone define "Gaffa"

[dijk@let.rug.nl (B.J. Dijk)]

chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu (Chris Williams) writes in one article:
>     The word gaffa *is* a real word in Italian. It's a feminine form
> of the French word "gaffe."

and later in another one:
>    I did find it in an unabridged Italian dictionary. I don't believe 
> that she knew the Italian word, but it is interesting.
I checked my personal walking Italian dictionary (i.e. my fidanzata) on this
and she never heard of the Italian word "gaffa" as a transliteration of
"gaffe". According to her they just use the French word "gaffe" (also
pronounced in a French way, i.e. the final "e" is not pronounced as it would
be in Italian). Plural of "la gaffe" would be "le gaffi" if it were declined
regularly, but again according to my fiancee they use the French plural form,
"gaffes".

Just to be sure I also looked it up in the dictionaries we have and they all
confirmed this reading, "gaffe" stays "gaffe" in Italian. There is an Italian
word "gaffa" though, which means "boat-hook".

Berend
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Berend Dijk                                e-mail: b.j.dijk@let.rug.nl
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