[leish-l] Paparazzi

[Richard Ashford]

6 August 2004, between bouts of scolding by my wife for not mowing the lawn
- retirement has more than one side!!

Paparazzi / papatasi

Dear colleagues,

I just caught an item on the radio, discussing (for some arcane reason) the
origin of the word 'paparazzi' (is it two 'p's or one?), the pestilential
press photographers.  Apparently it comes from Paparazzo, the name of the
photographer in the famous film (iconic of the 1960s for those of you too
young to know), La Dolce Vita.  When Fellini, the director, was asked the
origin of the name, he said he'd named the guy after 'paparazeo', the
Sicilian name for a buzzing fly/mosquito.

Obviously there's some confusion, but this must be the 'papatacci' that we
are told is the Italian for a sandfly, and indicates that it is silent, not
buzzing, and is the origin of the papatasi in Phlebotomus papatasi.  So the
original paparazzi were sandflies!!

Did anyone know this? I bet we can use it in some way, in advocacy of the
importance of leishmaniasis?

Comments and corrections from Italian colleagues please, and please excuse
my spelling!

Dick Ashford



R.W. Ashford
Consultant Biologist
Professor (Retired) of Parasite and Vector Biology
c/o Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Liverpool L3 5QA
Tel: +44 151 632 2714
Fax: +44 151 705 3371
e-mail: ashford at liv.ac.uk