TUCCI1969-002 - ethnographic attestation
Boys of Giugliano in Campania, Naples
Campania - Southern Europe (NE Italy)
Play / practical
fru-fru Italian
fru-fru — onomatopoeic, from the fruscio (rustle) of the whirled tavoletta.
On the plain north of Naples the bullroarer was still flying in the 1960s: at Giugliano in Campania boys called it fru-fru, plain onomatopoeia for the rush of the little board as it cut the air.
...il rombo sarebbe ancora in uso a Giugliano in Campania (Napoli) con la denominazione fru-fru, evidente richiamo onomatopeico del suono (fruscio) prodotto dalla tavoletta nel fendere l'aria.
...the rombo is said to be still in use at Giugliano in Campania (Naples) under the name fru-fru, an evident onomatopoeic echo of the sound — the rustle — of the little board as it cuts the air.
Giovanni Tucci, 'Studi e ricerche sul rombo in Italia', Rivista di Etnografia XXIII (1969), p. 370
- Object
- A wooden tavoletta — a small whirled board.
- Function
- Boys' toy still in use in the 1960s; the name is onomatopoeia for the rush of the board cutting the air.
- Map confidence
- medium - Giugliano in Campania town center.
- Source location
- Tucci 1969, p. 370
- Toy / secular survival