Etymology
The name of the city should be attributed to the Slavs or Slavonia. To escape the persecutions of the Saracens, they immigrated to the opposite coast of the Adriatic, settling in late 963 in the fertile regions of Puglia. Since then the town was simply called St. Vitus, Saint Vitus of Slavs or even San Vito in Terra d'Otranto. In 1863, after being returned to the Kingdom of Italy (1861) San Vito degli Schiavoni changed its name and assumed its current San Vito dei Normanni in honor of the man who is considered the founder of the medieval village, Bohemond of Hauteville (1050–1111 ), son of Robert Guiscard.
Read more about this topic: San Vito Dei Normanni
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)