Pinocchio

Is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the 1883 children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi, and has since appeared in many adaptations of that story and others. Carved by a woodcarver namedGeppetto in a small Italian village, he was created as a wooden puppet, but dreamed of becoming a real boy. Pinocchio is often a term used to describe an individual who is prone to telling lies, fabricating stories and exaggerating or creating tall tales for various reasons.

Pinocchio is known for having a short nose that becomes longer when he is under stress (chapter 3), especially while telling a lie. His clothes are made of flowered paper, his shoes are made of wood and his hat is made of bread (page 16 of Collodi's Le Avventure di Pinocchio). Despite the fact that in Italian the name Pinocchio might be a version of 'baby pine' (a portmanteau of pino, pine, and marmocchio, brat), in fact it means pine nut which is distinctly, probably willfully illogical as the book clearly states that the puppet was made out of cherry wood. The name actually comes from a nickname: Geppetto wryly gave the puppet the name Pinocchio as an omen of good fortune: Ho conosciuto una famiglia intera di Pinocchi [...] e tutti se la passavano bene. Il più ricco di loro chiedeva l’elemosina (chapter 1) (I have known the entire Pinocchio family [...] and all of them managed well. The richest begged). However the surname itself may be derived from the Italian word nocchio, meaning a gnarl or knot in wood.

Disney version

Pinocchio is seen as a living puppet, who must prove himself to become a real boy. He is seen in a slightly pudgy face, blue eyes, 4 fingers (later 5 as his flesh-and-blood form at the end), a yellow hat, a blue bow tie, white opera gloves, red overalls, black vest, and white socks (in his flesh-and blood form at the end).