The plant name 'zappino': etymology and dissemination

The plant name “zappino” most certainly comes from Latin, from Sap(p)inus = zappino, which is cited by many classic Latin authors such as Pliny, Virgil, Vitruvius, etc. The first vernacular attestations date back to the year 978. Just like the Romans gave sap(p)inus various meanings (pine tree, pine or spruce trunk, pine cone), today the name zappino is given to many different species: Aleppo pine tree, black pine, larch pine, cluster pine, local pine, spruce, larch. The word zappino has also been included in local toponomastics in areas with abundant resinous species; the toponym has been preserved until modern times, also in districts where the species no longer exist and local people have long since lost the memory of them. The attribution of zappino to the Fontegreca (Caserta, southern Italy) cypress tree does not appear to be sufficiently documented and semantically correct. It is likely that the word origin (with various contaminations) is an animal name, deriving from a Balcanic dialect (=billy goat, kid, goat, plots of land or mountains, streams or road networks), associated with the presence of little goats that have nothing to do with the cypress tree; a similar etymology could be applied to toponyms of sites where pine trees or spruce trees have never existed.