Grove Spelling Dictionary
a doubled consonant

Pistacchio, with two c

graft: letter 7
Writtenpistachio

pi-STASH-ee-oh

That is the Italian spelling, and it is correct in Italian. The doubled c is not decoration there: in Italian, c before i or e goes soft, and doubling it is part of how the hard k is kept. English borrowed the word, kept one c, and lost the reason the second one was ever there. Anyone who writes pistacchio in English has usually seen the word on a menu or a tub of gelato rather than misheard it.

Other spellings of pistachio

Back to the pistachio entry