The story
- Vulgar Latin · derived frompittitus“small, worthless”
- Italian · borrowed fromzite
- English todayziti
From Italian zite or ziti, plural of zita, zito, from a Southern (Neapolitan or Sicilian) word likely from Vulgar Latin pittitus (“small, worthless”), originally denoting a young boy or girl. See also petty.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.