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carusu

Pronunciation: /kaˈɾu.su/

“carusu” is a Sicilian word. Its 4 meanings in English:

noun

  1. young boy, child
  2. guy
  3. A young worker.
  4. an exploited boy, among 6-14 years approximately, used as a labourer in a sulfur, salt or potash mine, due to their ability to enter narrow shafts of mines.

In Sicilian

  1. carusu

Etymology

Disputed. Some have sustained a not well explained derivation from Ancient Greek κόρος (kóros, “boy”). More likely it derives from a vulgar readjectivized use of Latin cārus (“dear, beloved; expensive”), from caru (“dear, beloved”) + -usu (-ose, -ous), then substantivized. If this latter is right, compare Irish cara and English whore for similar developments.

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About this dictionary

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Definitions in Sicilian are from the Sicilian Wiktionary, under the same licence.