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carpaccio (n.)

"raw meat or fish served as an appetizer," 1975, from Italian, often connected to the name of Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1460-1526) but without any plausible explanation except perhaps that his pictures often feature an orange-red hue reminiscent of some raw meat (and were the subject of a popular exhibit in Venice in 1963).

Giuseppe Cipriani, the owner of Harry's Bar [in Venice], claimed to have first served it around 1950 for a customer who demanded raw meat, but its name is not recorded in print before 1969 .... Over the decades the term has broadened out to cover any raw ingredient, including fish and even fruit, sliced thinly. [Ayto, "Diner's Dictionary"]

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