antipasti
/ˌæntiˈpɑːsti/noun
Italian starters served before the main meal
From Italian antipasto (Food served before the meal).
Lineage
RomanceGermanicnot directly attested
Selected stage
Modern English
antipasti — Italian starters served before the main meal
The story
Antipasti are Italian starters served before the main meal. In English, antipasti is the plural of antipasto, borrowed from Italian, where the word means “food before the meal.” The term names the opening course, which can vary by region: the recorded descriptions include cheeses and fried foods in Campania, and cured meats, mushrooms, or freshwater fish in northern Italy. An English use of the plural is recorded in the Chicago Reader on April 29, 1988.
Words from the same roots
antipasto · Italian, ‘Food served before the meal’
Derivedappetizer, starter, hors d'oeuvre