Sulla diffusione dei termini “mòcheno” e “tamocco” nell’arco alpino orientale: nuovi dati e documenti a supporto del collegamento con il medio alto tedesco “mocke”

In this paper we reconsider the etymology of the esoetnics "mòcheno", "tamocco" and "much/moch" across the Italian Alps, and provide further evidence for the etymological hypothesis we put forward in Casalicchio/Cognola (2016). Specifically, we show that these words develop from the Middle High German form "mocke" in its meaning of "a clodhopper", which developed the specific meaning "Austrian, German" only in those areas in which the Romance population was in contact with German-speaking peasants.