IL VOCABOLARIO DELLA CARITÀ E LA FORTUNA DEL VERBO “CARITARE”

Abstract

The paper analyses the extremely rich vocabulary of charity in Italian language, starting from the verb caritare, whose destiny has been peculiar: even though it does not appear in the most important dictionaries of Italian language (De Mauro, Garzanti, Sabatini-Coletti, Treccani, Zingarelli), it has been widely disseminated due to Fabrizio de André’s famous song Khorakhané. The verb caritare was compiled by Prof. Piero Brunello from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, in a glossary of terms used in Roma camps in San Giuliano (hosting the so-called Xoraxané Romá, originating from Obilić, near Priština, in Kosovo) and Zelarino (hosting the so-called Dasikané Roma, originating from Šabac, in Serbia), among speakers of Romani and Serbian language, in order to communicate with Venetian and Italian natives, during March-October 1994.