nannu

Borrowed from Sicilian nannu.

• IPA^(key): /ˈnan.nu/
• Rhymes: -annu

nannu m (plural nanniet or nannujiet or nannijiet, feminine nanna)

1. grandfather

   Synonym: ġidd

   • 2018, Antoinette Borg, Amina, Merlin Publishers, →ISBN:

     Imnalla għajjatlu Fredu u kellu jwaqqaf l-eloġju ta’ nannuh, għax naħseb l-istorja li kien imiss kienet li għandu xi gżira privata.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. Used to show respect when addressing old men.

   Alternative form: nann

Likely an Onomatopoeic word of unclear source. Compare, for more, Latin nonnus (“monk; old person”), Proto-Celtic *nana (“grandmother”), Sanskrit नना (nanā, “mother, mama”), Russian ня́ня (njánja, “nurse”). Similar to Ancient Greek: νόννος (nónnos, “father”), νάννας (nánnas, “uncle”) and νίννη (nínnē, “grandmother”). Compare Italian nonno, which gave the sicilianized nonnu.

• IPA^(key): /nan.nu/, [ˈna.nːʊ]
• Rhymes: -annu
• Hyphenation: nàn‧nu

nannu m (plural nanni, feminine nanna)

1. (kinship) grandfather

   Synonym: nonnu grandfather

   jiri comu li ganghi di me nannu ― to shake, to be unstable (literally, “to be like my grandfather's teeth”)

   li cartuleggi di so nannu ― past things (literally, “one's grandfather's old papers”)

   Chi ura di chiànciri a me nannu!

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   Cu voli a so' nannu si lu prega.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   Si me nannu nun fussi mortu, ancora sarrìa vivu.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

2. (colloquial, by extension) Term to address old men. grandpa, gramps
4. Local folkloric figure personification of Carnival, a dummy resembling a devil that is lit up at the end of the festivities.

   nannu (di) Carnilivari

   mòriri lu nannu ― to burn the nannu

• → Maltese: nannu

• Traina, Antonino (1868), “nannu”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, pages 2643–2644
• Pasqualino (c. 1790), “nannu”, in Vocabolario siciliano etimologico, italiano e latino (in Italian), volume 3, page 241
• Mortillaro, Vincenzo (1862), “nànnu”, in Nuovo vocabolario siciliano-italiano (in Italian), page 562