raviolin.

Etymology: < Italian ravioli (plural) pasta with a filling of cheese, meat, vegetables, or a combination of these, in early use also a kind of meatball made with minced meat or vegetables and various other ingredients (first half of the 14th cent. or earlier as †raviuoli ; compare also raviole , feminine plural (a1311; now only in regional use)), further etymology uncertain and disputed (see below). Compare post-classical Latin raviolus (from 1284 in Italian sources, originally in raviolus sine crusta de pasta meatball without a pastry crust), and perhaps also rabiola (c1243 in a British source), both denoting a kind of meatball. Compare also French ravioli , plural noun (1807; 1747 as †rafiolis (compare Italian regional (northern) rafioli (1598 in Florio, or earlier)); < Italian). Compare earlier rafiole n., raviol n., raynoll n.The Italian word has frequently been considered a derivative of Italian regional (northern) rava (second half of the 13th cent.), variant of rapa turnip (c1350; < classical Latin rāpa rape n.⁵), based on the assumption that the pasta originally contained a filling of turnips, but this does not appear to have been the case; early ravioli contained a filling of minced pork, eggs, cheese, and spices, or (in a Lenten version) herbs, cheese, and spices (see e.g. A. Davidson Oxf. Compan. Food (1999) 655/1). Alternatively, a derivation ultimately < a classical Latin form *rubeola or *rubiola, said to be attested in Pliny and to denote a kind of cheese, has been suggested, but the alleged Latin form does not exist (perhaps compare Italian robiola denoting a kind of mild soft cheese, but this is first attested later (mid 16th cent.) and is itself of uncertain origin). See further M. Cortelazzo & P. Zolli Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana (ed. 2, 1999) at raviolo and Trésor de la langue française at ravioli.