It is also applied to some items of clothing, as well as being used in automobile styling, where it describes a class of open-top, two-seat sports cars.
The use of the diminutive suffix -etta, the feminine form of -etto, confers the sense of something small or tiny with a connotation of endearment or affection towards the object.
[1] When applied to an automobile, barchetta describes a small car that is open-topped, without provision of a removable or foldable top for weather protection.
The barchetta has full-width enveloping bodywork, in contrast to an early spider corsa, which may have cycle or wing fenders.
[2] Later (non-corsa) spiders added more heavily padded seats, interior carpeting and a full windshield, items not found in the more spartan barchette.