Origin of "polvere del pimperimpera"

Question

I have found out that Italian has the phrase polvere del pimperimpera that seems very much like the French poudre de perlimpinpin. This French phrase refers to a powder that used to be sold by quacks and is nowadays used to mean a useless medecine. Poudre means "powder", and I could find in a bilingual dictionary that polvere means "powder" in Italian. I could not find pimperimpera in a bilingual dictionary, so I suppose, like the French perlimpinpin, it is a word that has no meaning outside this specific phrase but I neither speak nor understand Italian. French dictionaries say the origin of the phrase poudre de perlimpinpin is unknown.

My question is manyfold:

• Does pimperimpera evoke anything to an Italian speaker? And if it does, what?
• French dictionaries say the French phrase poudre de perlimpinpin was first noted in the 17th century, when was the Italian phrase first noted? French dictionaries don't say the phrase could have been borrowed from the Italian, could the Italian phrase been borrowed from the French?

Answer 1

Personally I never heard the expression, however the meaning in Italian seems similar to the French one you refer to: Pimperimpera: s.m.

• Nella loc. Polvere di, del pimperimpera, polvere magica usata dagli illusionisti e dai giocolieri;

• fig. rimedio inefficace, inganno, illusione.

(Garzanti)

Pimperimpera: masculine noun

• In the expression Polvere di, del pimperimpera, magic powder used by magicians and jugglers;

• figurative ineffective remedy, con, illusion.

(Garzanti)

According the Dizionario DeMauro the term comes from the mangling of the latin term "diatrionpepereon", from which originates probably the French expression too:

• av. 1891; deformazione scherzosa del latino medievale diatrionpepereon, dalla locuzione greca "dià triôn pepéreōn", “con tre spezie”.

• adverb 1891; humorous deformation of the medieval Latin diatrionpepereon, from the Greek expression "dià triôn pepéreōn", "with three spices".

The Treccani online cites other forms used to indicate the same term and refers to the French expression:

• pimperimpèra (o pimperimpara; anche pirimpimpino o pimpirimpì) s. m. [deformazione scherz. del lat. mediev. diatrionpepereon (cfr. fr. poudre de perlimpinpin) che è dal gr. διὰ τριῶν πεπέρεων, comp. di διά «dia-», τρεῖς «tre» e πέπερι «pepe, spezie», propr. «attraverso tre spezie»].

• – Polvere di (o del) p., sostanza a cui vengono attribuite proprietà magiche, usata da ciarlatani o giocolieri o, nelle favole, da maghi e stregoni; fig., scherz., rimedio specioso e inefficace, cosa che mira comunque a ingannare con false apparenze.

• pimperimpèra (or pimperimpara; also pirimpimpino or pimpirimpì) masculine noun [humorous deformation of the medieval Latin diatrionpepereon (compare to the French poudre de perlimpinpin) which comes from the Greek διὰ τριῶν πεπέρεων, composite by διά «dia-», τρεῖς «three» and πέπερι «pepper, spices», properly «through three spices»].

• – Polvere di (o del) p., substance to whom are attributed magic properties, used by charlatans or jugglers or, in the fables, by wizards; figuratively, humorously dodgy and ineffective remedy, thing whose aim is at any rate to trick with false appearances.