Cupeta

Several sources (including official Italian ministerial ones) state that the name comes from the Latin word cupedia; however, this is an incorrect etymological attribution made by Matteo Camera in 1838. The similar Latin terms cupedia and copadia respectively mean 'sweat treats' and 'meat pieces'.
Some sources hold the view that the name cupeta, on the other hand, comes from the Arabic word qubbayt, literally meaning 'sweet preserve', and was documented for the first time in a document from Palermo of 1287, where a cubaydario cited (a producer of cubaita, a dessert made of apples, almonds, toasted chickpeas and sesami seeds).
The name is then mentioned by Giambattista Basile (Naples, 600s) twice; in the Lo cunto de li cunti overo lo trattamento de peccerille and in the Le cinco figlie, as well as by Giulio Cesare Cortese in the Micco Passaro nnammorato.

History

The word cupeta is of Latin or Arabic origins. The first explicit record of its existence in Italy dates back to 1287.
The dessert was part of the wedding feast of Bona Sforza and Sigismund I the Old in 1517.