Why is the meaning of bigotry/bigotto different in italian language?

Question

According to Google, bigotry is:

obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, opinion, or faction, in particular prejudice against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group. "the difficulties of combating prejudice and bigotry"

While, still according to Google, bigotto means:

Chi assiduamente e scrupolosamente osserva le pratiche del culto senza afferrarne l'intima essenza religiosa; bacchettone, pinzochero.

It seems like in italian the meaning is strictly related to religion, while in english it has a "wider" meaning.

Answer 1

I'll try to answer, but I'm not sure what is exactly the question here. It can't be “Why is the meaning of bigotto different in Italian language”, because it's not “different”: it's what it is.

Bigotto comes from French bigot, in origin a pejorative term of abuse with which Normans were called, perhaps (but this is contested) from their Old English phrase bī God, that is by God. So probably the meaning comes from attributing to Normans a religiosity that was only apparent, not truly felt.

Whatever its precise origin, French bigot and its derivations, as Italian bigotto and English bigot, had originally (and in the French and Italian case still have) this meaning of “a sanctimonious person, a religious hypocrite, holier-than-thou”.

_{Why in English it has evolved toward different nuances is beyond the scope of this StackExchange. Those about English language might be able to help.}