Ossobuco

[Ittaob at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 10/5/01 8:23:58 PM, laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:

<< Luca's plural above brings up something I'd meant to suggest, in
connection with the earlier discussion about the listings for "osso
bucho" (in some of Barry's early U. S. cites) and those for "osso
buco".  While the latter is the form I've always seen, perhaps
someone not totally familiar with Italian came across the plural at
one point, which I assume would be either "ossi buchi" (not "buci",
with an affricate, but with a -ch- to designate the 'hard' or velar
[k]) or perhaps "ossobuchi" (as above), and applied a sort of back
formation to end up with "osso [sing.] bucho [sing. back-formed from
plural]".  Anyone have other ideas? >>

On reflection, I'm sure that's what must have happened. BTW, my Collins
Italian-English dictionary gives the plural as "ossibuchi" (one word).

Steve Boatti