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APICE | APICELLA

Apice is typical of Naples and its environs, Apicella is typical of Campania, of Neapolitan and Salerno in particular, they should derive from the Latin nomen Apicius of which we have an example in a satire by Giovenale: "... emit sibi. Fine videmus quae miser et frugi non fecit Apicius. hoc tu succinctus patria quondam, Crispine, ... ", we find traces of this surname in Pietrelcina (BN) since the second half of the 1500s with a certain Consultor Apicella, in Naples in 1600:" ... Fiorello Apicella Br. Ioannes Baptista, Neapolitanus, floruit about medietatem saeculi XVII ... ". additions provided by Fabio Paolucci Apicella is a typical surname from Campania, with its epicenter in Cava de'Tirreni (SA), Salerno and Naples, as well as in the Amalfi coast in the Salerno municipalities of Tramonti, Maiori, Vietri sul Mare and Minori, and in the Agro Nocerino - Sarnese in the centers of Nocera Superiore, Nocera Inferiore and Angri, also in the Salerno area, but widely distributed in several nuclei throughout the national territory. More hypotheses can be formulated about the etymological origin. The first intuition would move us to think of a probable Latin derivation, but there are many terms in the language spoken by our distant ancestors that can be etymologically linked to the surname in question. The first Latin word to be taken into account is the noun apex, icis, which can be translated with the meanings of apex, tip, top, apex as a sign of the long vowel (apex litterarum), crest, tuft of feathers on the cap or on the helmet, ornament, supreme decorum, rank. Apicella could therefore derive from a nickname linked to the activity carried out or to a specific physical connotation of the Founder. Another term to consider is apica, ae, a term used to describe a particular type of sheep that has no belly wool: in this case, the surname could derive from the activity of a shepherd, breeder, shearer or producer of cheese and sheep's milk . Always linked to the world of agricultural activities is the word apicia: it was called by this name a particular Muscat grape that gave rise to the so-called vinum apicium, a wine widely appreciated in ancient Rome. In the final analysis, Apicella could derive from the surname of the personal name Apicius, name of a very famous Roman gastronomist who lived under Tiberius: he was the author of a work in ten books, fortunately come down to our days, the de re coquinaria, in which dealt with the pleasures of the table and ways of stimulating the appetite. For the reason just mentioned, the name Apicius was mainly used in the feminine to wish and underline the good culinary talents of a young girl, destined to become an honest wife and active housewife. Apicius thus became the female Apicia, in domestic and affective terms Apicellula, from whom Apicella. This last consideration, which seems the most acceptable, demonstrates the fact that the Apicella stocks are many and of different origins, even if they can be located in the same circumscribed geographical area: this combination is probably due to the greater diffusion, still in the Middle Ages by popular tradition , of the name of person Apicia more in the area of Campania than in other Italic places. From various Apicias, the various Apicella strains would then have sprung up and branched out over the centuries. Still a last consideration, not to be underestimated, would concern the derivation of the surname not from the name Apicia, but from a very flourishing type of activity in the past, above all in medieval times: that of the beekeeper and producer of honey, fundamental food for the diet of the past and also used for the purpose of preserving other foodstuffs. In this sense Apicella derives from the union of the two terms ape, or in the plural api (from apis, is), and cella (from cella, ae), ie cell for bees in the popular sense, ie in spoken Latin, therefore artificial hive built from the beekeeper in order to produce honey. It could also derive from the toponym Campano Apice (BN).

Bibliographic source' "L'origine dei cognomi Italianim storia ed etimologia" di E. Rossoni disponibile online su: https://archive.org/


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Apicella
Nobles: Italia
Nobility: Cavalieri
Language of the text: Italiano

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