<snip>
2) 'ghetto' comes from the Italian for 'foundry'. [DB]
<snip>
Riccardo Calimani ( *Storia del ghetto di Venezia*) discusses the etymology.
Although ghetto < (Venetian dialect) geto/getto (= Italian fonderia) is a
common explanation, /gh/ is hard and guttural, /g/ soft and palatal and the
transition from the one phonetically difficult to explain. So the OED is
right with its warning 'perhaps'.
Calimani makes the attractive point (quoting Emilio Teza) that the argument
over whether 'ghetto' was a new word (it's used in its modern sense by the
1570s) or an adaptation of an existing word (the foundry was defunct) is
also an argument over whether linguistic imperatives are stronger than those
of *history*.
Just to add to the confusion, if you go to Venice you find that the new
getto is actually the first Jewish ghetto whereas the getto no 1 is the
second.
CW
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Wasting all my days...
Boatman, I've come to the river at a bad time.
I don't know your name.
(Baul singer in Ghatak's 'Cloud Capped Star')
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