Eighty-eight is 'e casecavalle, the caciocavallo cheeses. Caciocavallo is a gourd-shaped cheese tied with cord and hung over a beam in pairs, one either side, which is where the plural comes from and why the figure sits on a doubled digit.
The name means cheese-on-horseback, from the way the pair straddles the pole. It is one of the few Neapolitan food words that explains itself.
- 88
- 'E casecavalle
- the caciocavallo cheeses
- Row 81–90 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
The shape reading is the obvious one and the sources leave it unstated, as they do at 11 and 66. Two round objects, two round digits. Nobody has printed it as an explanation and it does not need one.
Other things filed on 88
In Neapolitan life
Sicily reads the same pair of circles as testicles and offers three published owners: the grandfather's, the lieutenant's, or the Pope's. Naples keeps the lieutenant at 30 and puts cheese here — but its own printed dictionary quietly files palle del Papa and occhiali del Papa on 88 as well. The joke crossed the strait; the cheese did not.
88 in the smorfia — frequently asked
A gourd-shaped southern Italian cheese, tied and hung in pairs over a beam. The name means cheese-on-horseback.
Because the cheeses hang in twos, and because the number has two digits. Both readings are available and neither is documented as the reason.