English
cicerone
1726, from Italian cicerone (surface analysis cicero + -one), from Latin Cicerōnem, form of Cicerō, agnomen of Marcus Tullius Cicero), the Roman orator, from cicer ("chickpea") from Proto-Indo-European *ḱiker-. Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /t͡ʃɪt͡ʃəˈɹəʊni/, /sɪsəˈɹəʊni/
Noun

cicerone (plural cicerones)

  1. A guide who shows people around tourist sights.
    • 1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days, Part I, Chapter 7
      East, still doing the cicerone, pointed out all the remarkable characters to Tom as they passed […]
    • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 3:
      he was in the act of making his evening plans with the same smelly but nice cicerone in a café-au-lait suit whom he had hired already twice at the same Genoese hotel [...].
    • 1987, Michael Brodsky, Xman, p. 360:
      Ultimately their gazes all rested on his cicerone as most powerful member of the group.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 279:
      “First,” advised their cicerone in the matter, Professor Svegli of the University of Pisa, “try to forget the usual picture in two dimensions.”
Related terms Translations Verb

cicerone (cicerones, present participle ciceroning; past and past participle ciceroned)

  1. (ambitransitive, archaic) To show (somebody) the sights, acting as a tourist guide.


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