Re: Origins of the name Sprint?

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Emmo asks "Does anyone know the origins of the name Sprint? Why the use of an
English word? My feeble travel dictionary doesn't show a word sprint in
Italiano nor will it translate sprint into Italian for me."

Nor will he find 'Spider' (ragno), nor 'Super' (sovra) nor 'Touring' (the name
of the coachbuilder, which was changed to 'Turinga' under nationalist fascism
and back to 'Touring' after the war, nor 'Twin' nor 'Spark' as in Twin Spark
(doppio or gemella, and scintilla (or candella, for spark-plug) or wagon
(carro or furgone, as in Sport Wagon), (he will find 'Sport', but as an
imported word, like "five o'clock" for a snack in French, from British
tea-time; five o'clock a toute heures, tea at any time) or 'gentlemen',
meaning non-professional, as in the Grand Prix Gentlemen di Bresia which
Campari led for several laps in Alfa's first twin-cam, even though Campari was
a factory driver.

The origins of such words as Sprint and Spider lie in the often fanciful
terminology of eighteenth-century British coachbuilding, and "Why the use of
an English word?" lies in Italy's economic and industrial poverty, at least in
relative terms, in the nineteenth century when the Industrial Revolution had
made Britain the master and/or envy of the less fortunate, and both the
aristocracy and the nouveaux riche (see? works both ways -) toured the
culturally rich and economically poor parts of the world. Just as an
entrepreneur from Brooklyn would make up a "Danish-sounding" name for a
premium ice-cream his counterpart a century earlier in Turin would coin the
name "Welleyes" for his aspiring bicycle factory. A Milano cookie with your
espresso, anybody?
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided