The same author Francesco Cherubino expanded his Milanese dictionary (from 1814) and finished the last volume in 1843.

Vocabolario Milanese-Italiano: R - Z, Volume 4
Francesco Cherubini
Imp. Regia Stamperia, 1843 - 696 pages
https://books.google.de/books?id=G81FAA ... ra&f=false





The old article (1814) was ...




Notes:

"Tarlucch" (Stephen noted it) is mentioned in this dictionary, but it seems to mean something else (?).

The old text "Tarocch = Borra etc." is simply repeated, the possibly relevant difference to the older text is, that Tarocch is written in this context now as "Taròcch" and the playing card Tarocch is mostly written as "Tarocch". The playing card meaning dominates now the article, possibly the year 1726 (meaning of wood) in both articles gives the time, when the wood-association to the word Tarocch more or less disappeared.

For Milan's political situation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan

In 1700 the Spanish line of Habsburgs was extinguished with the death of Charles II. After his death, the War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701 with the occupation of all Spanish possessions by French troops backing the claim of the French Philippe of Anjou to the Spanish throne. In 1706, the French were defeated in Ramillies and Turin and were forced to yield northern Italy to the Austrian Habsburgs. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht formally confirmed Austrian sovereignty over most of Spain's Italian possessions including Lombardy and its capital, Milan.

Napoleon invaded Italy in 1796, and Milan was declared capital of the Cisalpine Republic. Later, he declared Milan capital of the Kingdom of Italy and was crowned in the Duomo. Once Napoleon's occupation ended, the Congress of Vienna returned Lombardy, and Milan, along with Veneto, to Austrian control in 1815.[36] During this period, Milan became a centre of lyric opera. Here in the 1770s Mozart had premiered three operas at the Teatro Regio Ducal. Later La Scala became the reference theatre in the world, with its premières of Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. Verdi himself is interred in the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, his present to Milan. In the 19th century other important theatres were La Cannobiana and the Teatro Carcano.

On 18 March 1848, the Milanese rebelled against Austrian rule, during the so-called "Five Days" (Italian: Le Cinque Giornate), and Field Marshal Radetzky was forced to withdraw from the city temporarily. The Kingdom of Sardinia stepped in to help the insurgents; a plebiscite held in Lombardy decided in favor of unification with Sardinia. However, after defeating the Sardinian forces at Custoza on 24 July, Radetzky was able to reassert Austrian control over Milan and northern Italy. A few years on, however, Italian nationalists again called for the removal of Austria and Italian unification. Sardinia and France formed an alliance and defeated Austria at the Battle of Solferino in 1859.[37] Following this battle, Milan and the rest of Lombardy were incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia, which soon gained control of most of Italy and in 1861 was rechristened as the Kingdom of Italy.

Perhaps the political changes influenced the changes of the interpretation of the word "Tarocch" (Spanish influence changed to Austrian-German influence).
Austria got the Tarock (rather similar to Tarocch) fashion around 1755.

In Toscana (also to Austria since 1738) the time of the French occupation was bad to the Minchiate production business. However, after recovering from this phase the Minchiate production went in slow steps totally down till 1861. In contrast the Milanese production (possibly ?) increased, at least the wordbook expansion of the article testifies a big interest in the game in 1843 (at least stronger as in the year 1814).

**********

For Stephen's ...

'tariere' a'boiste' means a 'wimble', which is
an 'auger', that is a hand tool for boring holes. So we are looking at a word meaning auger [hole borer - not at 'augur' as in divination].

Such a tool name would fit with the assumption,that Tarocch had been a word connected to the meaning of "wood".

In German we have "bohren" (= to drill) or "Bohrer" (for the tool), which in sound is similar to Borra (given as synonym to Tarocch). English "drilling" might be related to German "drehen", which is the action, that the Bohrer does (to turn around).

The passage to Tarocch = Borra gives as source "tariffa daziaria" as its source (that's "customs tariff" in English; actually they should have had a clear idea, what they meant with Tarocch).

Huck wrote: What we would need: A "tarrocch" in a Milanese text before 1495 ... likely rather difficult to find.

Exceptonally difficult -- regional dialects were either latinized or 'italianized' in any official and even popular literature (i.e, adapted to latin or Toscany dialect' i.e., with any barbarian roots given latin or italianised suffixes, orthography, etc.,). Dante said of the Piedmontese dialect that it was dreadfull, and more akin to language north of the alps than Italian (i.e., Milanese dialect was more akin to a 'foreign' language North of the Alps than it was to Dante's Italian). Most Lombardy vocabulary and syntax, in a literal context, that we have reference for prior to an 18th century interest in regional dialects (with consequent publication of grammars and vocabularies) has been either 'latinized' or 'Italianized' (i.e, restructured according to the syntax and spelling of either Latin or the dialect of Toscany). It is only in the 18th century that we begin to have records of the actual regional dialect and vocabularies recorded. (And that from the efforts of Milanese poets who played Ombre with Tarot, the late 18th century 'Garden Society' were a group of Milanese Poets who met to play Tarot, and together published much of the poetic material still extent or which they created in the Milanese Dialect - and other than which much of the present day knowledge of the dialect would have been lost). Milanese/Piedmont dialect is still spoken, but while such can give us an idea of the syntax/grammar, of course there is no way of knowing how ancient or otherwise the vocabulary is, such has also been open to cross-cultural influence - but the uniqueness of terms, words common to Lombardy but not taken up as standard Italian would suggest such being original to the region, and as much as they are different to standard modern Italian, old; as much 'foreign' as arabic or at least as french(!?). For many, or even for most, Old Lombard style vocabulary, syntax and idiomatic expression is as unintelligible to modern day Italian speakers as any foreign language is! (From what I've been told and read, Milanese/Lombard dialect, because of pronunciation, syntax and a stock of common words and phrases, 'sounds' more French than Italian).*

SteveM

* I remember reading about an old joke somewhere, about a Milanese shopkeeper speaking to a french tourist, they both make sense to each other in their own languages, but in a different sense, at cross-purposes, to which they intended (hence the joke, which sorry, I can't remember.)

Huck wrote: "Tarlucch" (Stephen noted it) is mentioned in this dictionary, but it seems to mean something else (?).

Tarlucch Tarocco - someone who is slovenly and vulgar/rude in dress and manner?
Tarluccon - pataccone - a sloppy, messy person, a slob, a tramp, also a fake object, junk, rubbish.
Tarocch - as for Tarlucch.

According to the dictionary I linked to before 'Vess on Tarlucch' = to be a blockead, a fool. Related it is believed to the Spanish taruga, which nowadays means a dumbwit, idiot, fool, but original a piece of wood - the figurative sense of taruga in Spain appears to be fairly modern, I cannot find any reference to a meaning of fool in any older dictionaries.

The spanish etymological dictionary I referenced before links its origins as celt/gaul.

There is also the Piedmontese expression = to be a 'taroc' which means to be a fool.

SteveM wrote:

Huck wrote: "Tarlucch" (Stephen noted it) is mentioned in this dictionary, but it seems to mean something else (?).

Tarlucch Tarocco - someone who is slovenly and vulgar/rude in dress and manner?
Tarluccon - pataccone - a sloppy, messy person, a slob, a tramp, also a fake object, junk, rubbish.
Tarocch - as for Tarlucch.

For this sense of tarocco he references Monig. Serv. Nob. II. 28

Which I have tracked down to La serva nobile a musical drama by Giovani Andrea Moniglia, published in Firenze in 1698:

Brus. S’intende.
Ans. E quel tarocco Di Fernando?
Brus. Gli avete Parlato?
Ans. Messer si; E questa borsa con cinquanta ducati m’ha dato, chi’io ti dia; il resto poi ti sbersera stasera.

An example of tarocch meaning wood:

rimangono ostensibili i capitoli relativi Le obblazioni che saranno state fatte tanto per la somministrazione generale del carbone forte del carbone dolce della legna dolce in ischenne e delle borre o tarocchi quanto per la somministrazione parziale di ciascuna qualità di detti combustibili verranno aperte alla presenza del sig direttore generale nel giorno 11 dello stesso mese di giugno e si delibereranno gli appalti parziali o vero l appalto generale in favore di chi avrà proposto il niglior partito salva però l approvazione di S E il sig conte senatore ministro delle finanze

The is about supplies of fuel (including bundles of wood - borre or tarocchi).

From the Giornale italiano 1812

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bjL ... ch&f=false

In 1798 a gross of Tarocchi cost 6 soldi (from a list of building materials)

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1RD ... hi&f=false

SteveM wrote:Related it is believed to the Spanish taruga, which nowadays means a dumbwit, idiot, fool, but original a piece of wood - the figurative sense of taruga in Spain appears to be fairly modern, I cannot find any reference to a meaning of fool in any older dictionaries.

In the spanish dictionaries I've looked at, an explicit association between Taruga and fools (zoquette, imbecile, torp) appears in dictionaries after 1800. There is an association with zoquette prior to that, which does mean both an oaf, fool and a 'block of wood'. But the association may have only been in the sense of 'block of wood' rather the figurative sense of fool.

SteveM wrote:

SteveM wrote:Related it is believed to the Spanish taruga, which nowadays means a dumbwit, idiot, fool, but original a piece of wood - the figurative sense of taruga in Spain appears to be fairly modern, I cannot find any reference to a meaning of fool in any older dictionaries.

In the spanish dictionaries I've looked at, an explicit association between Taruga and fools (zoquette, imbecile, torp) appears in dictionaries after 1800. There is an association with zoquette prior to that, which does mean both an oaf, fool and a 'block of wood'. But the association may have only been in the sense of 'block of wood' rather the figurative sense of fool.

But this shows how a similar word (tarugo/tarocch) develops from the literal sense (a block of wood) to the figurative (blockhead, dunce, fool) - I would suggest that this just happened far earlier in the Milanese/Piedmont/Italian sense of the word than it did in Spanish.... (it just makes more sense to me that a figurative sense would follow the literal, and over time the literal is lost, and the figurative becomes the main meaning....)

SteveM wrote: An example of tarocch meaning wood:

rimangono ostensibili i capitoli relativi Le obblazioni che saranno state fatte tanto per la somministrazione generale del carbone forte del carbone dolce della legna dolce in ischenne e delle borre o tarocchi quanto per la somministrazione parziale di ciascuna qualità di detti combustibili verranno aperte alla presenza del sig direttore generale nel giorno 11 dello stesso mese di giugno e si delibereranno gli appalti parziali o vero l appalto generale in favore di chi avrà proposto il niglior partito salva però l approvazione di S E il sig conte senatore ministro delle finanze

The is about supplies of fuel (including bundles of wood - borre or tarocchi).

From the Giornale italiano 1812

The reference notes charcoal.
I don't know the wood business, but it makes logic to assume, that "good quality wood" was thrown in the water of rivers and transported to the cities by timber-rafting. Wood with less quality was used for charcoal production.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charcoal


Charcoal burner


Wood pile before covering it with turf or soil, and firing it

The use of "Tara" (discussed earlier) with the meaning "less quality" (garbage etc.) might have caused, that "tar-"-words were used for wood. But I've no idea, if Tarocch meant "good quality wood" or "bad quality wood". "Trunc" should mean good, strong wood, better than thinner limbs.

Charcoal was used to produce Salpeter, and Salpeter was used to produce gunpowder (but only a special tree, Buckthorn ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhamnus_(genus)
... produces the charcoal, which is useful for the production of gunpowder).

Alfonso d'Este was famous for his cannons, and he had organised an own research to develop the best cannons of his time. Also he was fond of self-done pottery, another technique, where fire is used (beside the ironwork necessary to make the cannons, and the charcoal processes). Alfonso loved fire, as it seems.
Alfonso is said, to have been often seen in workmen clothes instead fine dressing.

Ferrara is said to have had a good name for engraved pottery already since the time of Leonello.
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitut ... uTgK?hl=en
"... Alfonso ...... was the first prince to introduce the ceramic tableware, which replaced the gold and silver that had been in use on the tables of nobility until then ... "

Somehow a sign of "back to earth" and back to simple things from the side of Alfonso. Perhaps one has to evaluate his renaming from "ludus triumphorum" (luxury name) to "tarochi" in a similar manner.

**********

We have still the feature, that Germini (1506, Florence) and Tarochi/Taraux (Ferrara/Avignon) have their first appearance close in time. Naturally it's not sure, that we observe the real first appearance.

Both connected cities (Florence, Ferrara) were politically allied to France then. It wasn't a time for Italian Trionfi as "triumphal celebrations", Naples and Milan had lost their rulers (1500, 1501). The invaders were Spanish and French. Even the popes were nor really Italian, Borgia was Spanish and Julius from Savona (near Genova) might be called half-French - half-Italian.

Speaking of a Ferrarese or Florentine "Trionfi deck" might have been a wrong word for the given moment, perhaps there was the risk, that this would have been misunderstood at the French side. From the Florentine document we read, that an unfinished Trionfi deck was in work. But it was a somehow French Trionfi deck.

**********

Thinking about the "Tarocch" word as wood, I got the idea, that the river "Taro" once possibly got this name, cause it was (possibly) used for timber-rafting. The city of Parma might have profited from it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taro_(river)

The Taro (Latin Tarus) is a river in Emilia-Romagna, in northern Italy. It is a tributary of the Po and is 126 kilometres (78 mi) long. It flows almost entirely in the province of Parma, west of the city Parma. The Taro flows into the Po near Gramignazzo, a frazione of the comune of Sissa, north of Parma.

The Val di Taro, or Taro valley, the drainage basin of the river, occupies an area of 2,026 square kilometres (782 sq mi). The principal affluents of the Taro are the Ceno, Recchio and Stirone; others are the Gotra and Tarodine. Both the Taro and the Ceno rise on Monte Penna, elevation 1,735 metres (5,692 ft), in the Apennine Mountains on the border between the provinces of Genoa and Parma.

The river shows strong seasonal variability. In summer it can easily dry, while in rainy periods it can reach a discharge of 1,000 cubic metres per second (35,000 cu ft/s): this value can double on rare occasions, known Italian: piene centennali, "centennial floods", such as that of November 9, 1982.

The Val di Taro was of strategic importance during the Middle Ages, as it was traversed by the Via Francigena, the pilgrim route and main connection between Rome and France in that era.

About 20 kilometres (12 mi) of the river course between Fornovo di Taro and Ponte Taro constitutes the protected area of the Parco fluviale Regionale del Taro, the Taro regional natural park. The area of the park includes the river bed itself, with numerous islets of sand and gravel and wetland areas, and surrounding areas of woodland, scrub and cultivated soil; it has a wide variety of vegetation and fauna.[1]

Following the French conquest of Italy in the Napoleonic Wars, the river gave its name to a département, the Département du Taro.

The average of water over the year is 30 m3/s (1,100 cu ft/s).

Parma (close to the river Taro) had some woodworking in 17th century ... furniture.
http://www.upi.pr.it/docs/UPI/9/parma_e ... prises.pdf
(page 51)

SteveM wrote

(From what I've been told and read, Milanese/Lombard dialect, because of pronunciation, syntax and a stock of common words and phrases, 'sounds' more French than Italian).*

SteveM

* I remember reading about an old joke somewhere, about a Milanese shopkeeper speaking to a french tourist, they both make sense to each other in their own languages, but in a different sense, at cross-purposes, to which they intended (hence the joke, which sorry, I can't remember.)

I remember a joke that was told to me by a Dutch friend at school. It was over 50 years ago, but I'd never heard anything like it, so I still remember it.

A young man is planning to meet a young woman via a male go-between, but he is delayed and arrives at the meeting place very late. Only the man is there. The go-between says "C'est trop tard!" in explanation. The first man replies, frustrated, with the Dutch equivalent of "What does her hair-color have to do with it?" That's the joke.

Explanation for the linguistically challenged: In French "C'est trop tard" means "It's too late". But in Dutch it sounds like "Ze heeft rood haar", meaning "She has red hair". Two languages not very similar. It must be a Belgian joke. Pretty lame.

Well, neither is Milanese. About Milanese, the Tuscan snob Pulci (died 1484) has a whole series of much better jokes, and punning with Milanese in precisely the time-period of our interest. Andrea quoted the verses, and I did my best to translate, from his repeated paraphrases and explanations, at http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=338&lng=ENG. His comments are based on conversations with a philologist acquaintance, not named. Earlier, Marco had done a translation, I think on Tarotpedia. But Andrea and I like ours better.

Here is the poem with the most number of these jokes, in mixed Milanese and Tuscan. Every line is a different joke, but not always using Milanese. Some use Tuscanized Milanese, but I'm not quoting them, hopefully. The poem has been given the name "Luigi Pulci staying in Milan" and consists of imaginary cries of vendors in the streets advertising their wares:

Luigi Pulci sendo a Milano

Sonetto LXXXXIV

« O ti dia Iddio zaine e bocchè!»
« I ofel, i ofel : i’ò mal che Dio ti dia!
« Cazzu, incu gh’è: quel primo al cul ti sia!
« O scove, o sprelle; o venga pure a te!
« O schiappalegne: o che ti schiappi el pé!
« O concie zibre : o serba a befanía!
« Palpé, palpé: ti palpi la moria!
« O fusalocchio: e ’n capo «el convercé».
« O castem peste»: o pesto ti sia ‘l core!
« O lacc im b(r)och: o preso sie’ tu a’ lacci!
« O chi l’ha rotto, donne, o chi ha le more».
« O pití peli, peccini, e burracci»
« O ravinculo», e sian le foglie fuore!
« Navon: pur(l)ì», ti forin ferri, e stracci!
«O verzi, o minchionacci!
« Cazzi, melat, ravize, e manigoldi»:
« o che v’inpicchin tucci coldi coldi!

Here are explanations of the particular lines that seem to me the most relevant to our discussion, especially the last three of the four I selected:

(1) « I ofel, i ofel (1): i’ò mal che Dio ti dia!
(I have doughnuts, I have doughnuts: may God send you to hell!)

The Ophel was a kind of doughnut, and "The Ophel, the Ophel" was the cry of the pastryman, but we must consider the inevitable misunderstanding that the cry produced in the ear of the Florentines, for them meaning “io ho fiele, io ho fiele”:”I have gall, I have gall" (jaundice).
......
(4)«O schiappalegne: o che ti schiappi el pé!
(O log splitter, oh, that you split your foot!

Schiappalegna = cry of one who cuts wood for other people, with a Tuscan Adaptation of s'cepalegn, which, abbreviated and altered to s'ceppin, would have known semantic degradation, passing from the original meaning of 'lumberjack' to that suggesting "incapacitated person, disabled".)
.............
(6)«Palpé, palpé : ti palpi la moria!
(Paper, paper: may a deadly epidemic touch you.

Palpé = Milanese term for paper. In the Tuscan dialect palpe is reminiscent of the verb palpare = feel, touch.)
.....
(7) «O fusalocchio: e ’n capo «el convercé».
(O spindle-maker: and over your head the bag!

Fusalocchio = Tuscan adaptation of the Milanese füserocch, which is fusaio, spindle-maker, together with the cry of the fusaio: fus e rocch, spindle and distaff, with the semantic duplicity of fus a l’occhio = spindle in the eye. Among the possible interpretations of convercè we believe that the most plausible is that it refers to a page of parchment with which he covered the spindles and distaffs in the manner of a bag; so the meaning of the phrase would be "and over your head is put the bag".)

Line 4 is of interest because it seems to use the double meaning of "log" and "incapacitated person", as Steve proposed for "tarocch" for that time-period. But I don't know if the double meaning is in Tuscan, Milanese or halfway between. I will have to ask Andrea.

Line 6 is of interest because the word "palpé" seems to resemble the French "papier" (and not its German pronunciation); if so, there is a shift from "r" to "l" or the other way around. I would think the latter because paper is made from pulp, French pulpe, Latin pulpa, fruit..

Line 7 is of interest because the spelling and sound of "füserocch" strikes me as Germanic, although I suppose it, too, could be related to French, which has the same u sound but without the umlaut. Also, the word has the "-cch" ending that is needed, which might be a shortened -rocchi, but the point is that it is early enough to make the "rocch" ending believable in that time period. It would be interesting to know if "-rocch" in Milanese means "someone who makes" a "füse", spindle, and if so whether it is Germanic or further west or south. Then, could a "tarocch" be someone who makes tares?

In another poem Pulci cites some other Milanese words in one stanza:

E dicon gniffignèr, e gniffignarri
le ravizie, e' racimol pinchieruoli,
da far, non che arrabbiare i cani, i carri.

(They call broccoli gniffigner and
gniffignarri, and raisins pinchieruoli,
a thing that would anger dogs and wagons.

Since gniffigner and gniffignarri, are in assonance with sgraffignare, that is, stealing, and pincheruoli with mariuoli, rogues, in this passage Pulci calls the Milanese thieves, which angers both dogs - barking when some stranger comes into the house - and wagons, which are filled to the brim, so that if they could talk they would express anger for the excess weight with which they were loaded. In any case, it is typically Italian expression that could be replaced with "dogs and pigs", that is to say, that could anger everyone.

My opinion was that what would anger the dogs would be words that sound like a dog barking (gniffigner, gniffignarri) and what would anger wagons would be words that sounded like them in motion (pinchieruoli). But I am only the translator, so I suppressed my voice. It might help if we knew how these Milanese words were pronounced. If the "gn" is like the "gn" in "Montagne", then it is similar to French (and a French dog?). If like the "kn" in "knabe", then German (and any old dog).

E dicon gniffignèr, e gniffignarri*
le ravizie, e' racimol pinchieruoli,
da far, non che arrabbiare i cani, i carri.

I remember that one from some time ago, I think Huck mentioned the sonnet because of Pulci's use of Minchi----
in the following stanza:

Milan puo far di molti ravibuoli;
tal ch’i perdono a que’ miei minchiattarri,
se non dicessin chiu come assivoli.

Which I think means something along the lines of:

Milan can make so make so many kinds of ravioli
for this I forgive them, my minchiattarri,
if they did not say chiu like assivoli. (??? assivoli could be owls/fools? similar in meaning lit. & fig. to allocco - owl/fool)

But I am not too sure...

SteveM
*ps: I think the first line of the stanza you quoted should be E' dicon le carote igniffi ignarri, they call carrots ...

I don't know about the first line. I'll have to ask Andrea. It does look like there is a word missing. Thanks.

Another issue: I can't see how Milanese would have vocabulary deriving from French, because French was the language of Northern France. More likely it would derive from Provencal, which is what was spoken in the part of current France that adjoins Italy.

I have been looking at literary connections between Savoy and Ferrara. One type of connection is by way of musical lyrics, since the frottola was a musical form. The book Music in Renaissance Ferrara, 1400-1505, by Lewis Lockwood, 2009, has a couple of things. One is on p. 226, in the middle of a narrative about Alfonso's trip to Paris in May 1502, after his marriage, and his desire to attract musicians from the French courts to Ferrara:

In the meantime, by July 1502, Gian de Artivaganova had gone to Savoy on his mission, and had attracted some new members to the Ferrarese court chapel. In early August, both Coglia and Gian were reporting to Ercole on the remarkable singers whom Gian had brought back from Savoy.

Then later there is a comment about frattole. This is in a section about the Flemish musician Jacob Obrecht, whom Ercole had recruited temporarily from Bruges in 1487, but who had returned to Flanders, working in both Bruges and Antwerp, when benefices were not forthcoming to finance him (perhaps bringing a tarot or two back with him?). He returned to Ferrara, from Antwerp, in 1504, probably late summer (p. 231):

...this hypothesis would fit well with Alfonso's trip to the Low Countries in August, which extended also to England and France, before news of Ercole's illness sent him rushing back to Ferrara to protect his title and inheritance.

But with Ercole's death he lost his post (p. 232):

For whatever reasons, Alfonso, on succeeding Ercole in February 1505, did not keep Obrecht on as chief musician, but let him go and chose to make a new appointment, eventually filled by Antoine Brumel a year later. Perhaps the wave of new secular music was rising too rapidly in Ferrara, and Mantua, with Alfonso, Ippolito and Isabella as patrons, to suit Obrecht's primary role as composer of Masses and motets. Although Obrecht wrote some secular music, none of it is written to Italian texts, and he was probably not very interested in the lighter vein of frottola, then greatly cultivated in Ferrara and Mantua.

In May, Obrecht is recorded as seeking employment in Mantua (p. 233). By August he had died of plague, which was persisting then in Ferrara.

"Taroch" meaning "fool", of course had one of its early appearances in a frottola published in Piedmont. But if a loan-word from Savoy's Provencal, then it could easily have made its way to Avignon independently of Alfonso, perhaps in the form "tarou". I have not found a good Provencal dictionary giving first documentations.

The reproduced pages of the book on Amazon (which doesn't have the pages I've cited) includes a rather impressive bibliography, perhaps with more interesting details.