What is "zucchetto"

small, round skull-cap worn by dignitaries in the Catholic Church, 1853, from Italian zucchetta "a cap," originally diminutive of zucca "gourd, head," perhaps from Late Latin cucutia, of unknown origin.

n. A small skullcap worn by Roman Catholic clergy. The Pope's is white; a cardinal's red; a bishop's purple; and a priest's black.

The zucchetto (; ; meaning "small gourd", from zucca, " pumpkin") is a small, hemispherical, form-fitting ecclesiastical skullcap worn by clerics of various Catholic Churches, the Syriac Orthodox Church, and by the higher clergy in Anglicanism. The plural is zucchetti; it is also known by the names pilus, pilos, pileus, pileolus (pileolo), subbiretum, submitrale, soli deo (solideo), berrettino, calotte (calotta).