piñata

• pinata

Unadapted borrowing from Mexican Spanish piñata, from piña (“pinecone”), from Latin pinea, because its paper cover (on traditional making) resembles one. Alternatively from Spanish via Italian pignatta (“clay pot”),^[1] from a Chinese custom allegedly introduced by Marco Polo.^[2]

• IPA^(key): /pɪnˈjɑː.tə/, /pɪnˈjæ.tə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

piñata (plural piñatas)

1. (Latin American culture) A doll or other decorated container that is filled with candy and hit with a hammer or a stick by blindfolded children during birthday parties or other celebrations until the candy falls out.
2. (figuratively) Something which is repeatedly hit or damaged over a period of time.
   • 2020 August 5, Drachinifel, 3:29 from the start, in The Battle of Jutland - Clash of the Titans - Part 2 (Jellicoe vs Scheer)‎^[2], archived from the original on 12 September 2022:

     […] Wiesbaden, largely crippled, nevertheless refuses to sink for the moment, and will become something of a steel piñata for passing British capital ships over the next few hours whilst throwing the odd torpedo back in retaliation.

   • 2024 October 16, Michael Kimmelman, “Paul Rudolph Was an Architectural Star. Now He’s a Cautionary Tale.”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     When it opened, it prompted rapturous reviews akin to what, many years later, greeted Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao. But the building soon became a piñata for everything wrong with modern architecture.

piñata (third-person singular simple present piñatas, present participle piñataing, simple past and past participle piñataed)

1. To hit something or someone with sticks after having filled them with candy.
   • 2015 (November 20) "Zombie Broheims", episode 14 of Pig Goat Banana Cricket

     Cricket: "Don't pinata me!"

• piñata on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Aptian, patina, tai-pan, taipan

Borrowed from Spanish piñata.

• IPA^(key): /pinˈjaː.taː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pi‧ña‧ta
• Rhymes: -aːtaː

piñata m (plural piñata's, diminutive piñataatje n)

1. piñata (decorated container filled with candy)

• pignata, pinata, pinyata, piniata

• IPA^(key): /pi.ɲa.ta/

piñata f (plural piñatas)

1. piñata

Borrowed from Italian pignatta (“kind of terracotta pot”), from pigna (“pinecone”), because of the pot's resemblance to them.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /piˈɲata/ [piˈɲa.t̪a]
• Rhymes: -ata
• Syllabification: pi‧ña‧ta

piñata f (plural piñatas)

1. piñata (doll filled with candy)

• → Catalan: pinyata
• → Dutch: piñata
• → English: pinata, piñata
• → Portuguese: pinhata

• “piñata”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

• pitaña