The alt.usage.english FAQ   

• "paparazzo"

  (Word Origins)
  
  

  
     This word for a freelance photographer who pursues celebrities
  is first attested in English in 1966.  It comes from Paparazzo,
  the surname of the photographer played by Marcello Mastroianni in
  Federico Fellini's 1960 film _La Dolce Vita_.  Fellini got the
  name "Paparazzo" from the name of a hotelkeeper in George Gissing's
  1901 novel _By the Ionian Sea_.  _Paparazzo_ could be analysed in
  Italian as _papa_="pope" + _razzo_="rocket"; according to Jesse
  Sheidlower, _paparazzo_ means "a buzzing insect" in dialectal
  Italian.  Webster's New World College Dictionary derives _paparazzo_
  from French _paperassier_="a scribbler, rummager in old papers".

  
  
  Source: [Mark Israel, 'Word Origins: "paparazzo"', The alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 3949), (29 Sept 1997)]
  
  
  
  

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