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Michael's Italian Language Blog

By Michael San Filippo, About.com Guide to Italian Language since 1999

Snaparazzi

Wednesday July 16, 2003
No, it's not a new Italian word! According to The Word Spy, snaparazzi are "amateur photographers who pursue celebrities to take their pictures." Photo-newshounds, in other words.

The Word Spy explains that snaparazzi "combines snapshot (with its connotations of amateur photography) and paparazzi (freelance photographers who hound celebrities to take candid pictures to sell to newspapers and magazines). The singular form of the latter is paparazzo, a word that became associated with annoying celebrity photographers thanks to Federico Fellini's film La Dolce Vita (The Good Life), which included a street photographer named Signor Paparazzo. Appropriately, paparazzo means 'buzzing insect' in dialect Italian."

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