Pinocchio  (pronounced  in Italian) is a fictional character that first appeared  in 1883, in The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, and has since  appeared in many adaptations of that story and others. Carved from a  piece of pine by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a small Italian village,  he was created as a wooden puppet, but dreamt of becoming a real boy.  The name Pinocchio  is a Tuscan  word meaning "pine nut" (the standard  Italian term is pinolo  pronounced