Seventy-three is 'o spitale, the hospital. Neapolitan clips the opening vowel off ospedale the same way it does off ubriaco at 14, and then softens the middle: ospedale to spitale.
It sits in a small run of institutional squares, the hospital at 73, the church at 84, the shop at 86, that between them cover most of a nineteenth-century life.
- 73
- 'O spitale
- the hospital
- Row 71–80 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
Not recorded.
Other things filed on 73
In Neapolitan life
Naples had one of Europe's largest charitable hospital systems under the Bourbons, and the Real Albergo dei Poveri, begun in 1751, was pushed on Charles of Bourbon by the Dominican Gregorio Maria Rocco, the same friar who appears in the story Naples tells about the invention of tombola.
73 in the smorfia — frequently asked
Neapolitan drops the initial vowel and reduces the middle. It is regular, not a corruption.
The church at 84 and the shop at 86, with the prison gates at 44 not far off. Between them they cover most of a nineteenth-century life.