Pasquino

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A statue, especially a famous one in Rome, on which people publicly attach anonymous satirical or political notes
2. An ancient statue that serves as a place where critical or humorous anonymous messages are publicly displayed
3. A sculpture traditionally used as a medium to post sharp, often political or satirical, anonymous writings

Etymology: Near Piazza Navona in Rome stands a battered marble figure, a fragment of an ancient statue group, and it takes its name from Pasquino, a local tailor or schoolmaster whose sharp tongue supposedly made him a neighbourhood character. Once the name attached to the stone, the statue became a convenient place to voice grievances about the powerful. Anonymous satirical verses began appearing on its plinth, pinned up under cover of night, and the practice gave rise to "pasquinata" in Italian and, later, "pasquinade" in English. So the word for the statue came to name the satire itself, and a sculpture of a forgotten hero ended up giving the language a word for public mockery.