Glossary
Giallo (the word)
Italian for yellow, after the paperback covers.
Giallo is Italian for yellow. It refers to the yellow covers of the Mondadori crime paperback series launched in 1929, which is where the word attached itself to the genre.
In Italy the word still means crime fiction generally, including Agatha Christie. Outside Italy it has narrowed to mean the specific run of Italian murder thrillers made roughly between 1963 and 1982.
That narrowing causes regular confusion. An Italian bookshop's giallo shelf is not what an English-speaking horror viewer means by the term.
For the film category, see giallo.
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