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Definition of Paparazzi - 3 dictionary results

pa⋅pa⋅raz⋅zo

  [pah-puh-raht-soh; It. pah-pah-raht-tsaw]
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–noun, plural -raz⋅zi  [-raht-see; It. -raht-tsee] .
a freelance photographer, esp. one who takes candid pictures of celebrities for publication.
Origin:
1965–70; < It, from the surname of such a photographer in Federico Fellini's La dolce vita (1959), after the name of a hotelkeeper in George Gissing's By the Ionian Sea (1901), read by Fellini in It trans. at the time of the movie's producton
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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pa·pa·raz·zo   (pä'pə-rät'sō)   
n.   pl. pa·pa·raz·zi (-sē)
A freelance photographer who doggedly pursues celebrities to take candid pictures for sale to magazines and newspapers.

[After Signor Paparazzo, a character in La Dolce Vita, a film by Federico Fellini.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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paparazzi 
1961, from It. Paparazzo (pl. paparazzi) surname of the freelance photographer in Federico Fellini's 1959 film "La Dolce Vita." The name itself is of no special significance; it is said to be a common one in Calabria, and Fellini is said to have borrowed it from a travel book, "By the Ionian Sea," in which occurs the name of hotel owner Coriolano Paparazzo.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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