WHAT PUTS THE "PIE" IN PIZZA PIE?
The word "pie" does not refer to the crust, nor even to the shape or position of the crust. The Oxford English, the Webster's unabridged, and lexicographer Charles Earl Funk, all agree that the elemental word "pie" relates to the Magpie, a bird with feathers splotched in two colors, a bird called "Pica" by the Romans, whence the English "Pie" and the alteration of "Pica" to "Pizza". The name relates to the bird's double color and its habit of gathering odds and ends as does a Pizza, or Pie, gather, and consist of, varied ingredients.