diff --git a/docs/faq.rst b/docs/faq.rst
index 75a0f4864..79ef6ca85 100644
--- a/docs/faq.rst
+++ b/docs/faq.rst
@@ -342,14 +342,14 @@ method for this purpose. For example::
 
     from copy import deepcopy
 
-    from scrapy.item import BaseItem
+    from scrapy.item import Item
 
 
     class MultiplyItemsMiddleware:
 
         def process_spider_output(self, response, result, spider):
             for item in result:
-                if isinstance(item, (BaseItem, dict)):
+                if isinstance(item, (Item, dict)):
                     for _ in range(item['multiply_by']):
                         yield deepcopy(item)
 
diff --git a/pytest.ini b/pytest.ini
index e8911ee3f..5a86ce2a7 100644
--- a/pytest.ini
+++ b/pytest.ini
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ flake8-ignore =
     scrapy/exceptions.py E501
     scrapy/exporters.py E501
     scrapy/interfaces.py E501
-    scrapy/item.py E501 E128
+    scrapy/item.py E501
     scrapy/link.py E501
     scrapy/logformatter.py E501
     scrapy/mail.py E402 E128 E501
diff --git a/scrapy/item.py b/scrapy/item.py
index 3558b2231..46d20d017 100644
--- a/scrapy/item.py
+++ b/scrapy/item.py
@@ -15,18 +15,8 @@ from scrapy.utils.trackref import object_ref
 
 
 class BaseItem(object_ref):
-    """Base class for all scraped items.
-
-    In Scrapy, an object is considered an *item* if it is an instance of either
-    :class:`BaseItem` or :class:`dict`. For example, when the output of a
-    spider callback is evaluated, only instances of :class:`BaseItem` or
-    :class:`dict` are passed to :ref:`item pipelines <topics-item-pipeline>`.
-
-    If you need instances of a custom class to be considered items by Scrapy,
-    you must inherit from either :class:`BaseItem` or :class:`dict`.
-
-    Unlike instances of :class:`dict`, instances of :class:`BaseItem` may be
-    :ref:`tracked <topics-leaks-trackrefs>` to debug memory leaks.
+    """
+    Deprecated, please use :class:`scrapy.item.Item` instead
     """
 
     def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
@@ -91,8 +81,7 @@ class DictItem(MutableMapping, BaseItem):
         if key in self.fields:
             self._values[key] = value
         else:
-            raise KeyError("%s does not support field: %s" %
-                (self.__class__.__name__, key))
+            raise KeyError("%s does not support field: %s" % (self.__class__.__name__, key))
 
     def __delitem__(self, key):
         del self._values[key]
@@ -104,8 +93,7 @@ class DictItem(MutableMapping, BaseItem):
 
     def __setattr__(self, name, value):
         if not name.startswith('_'):
-            raise AttributeError("Use item[%r] = %r to set field value" %
-                (name, value))
+            raise AttributeError("Use item[%r] = %r to set field value" % (name, value))
         super(DictItem, self).__setattr__(name, value)
 
     def __len__(self):
@@ -132,4 +120,17 @@ class DictItem(MutableMapping, BaseItem):
 
 
 class Item(DictItem, metaclass=ItemMeta):
-    pass
+    """
+    Base class for scraped items.
+
+    In Scrapy, an object is considered an *item* if it is an instance of either
+    :class:`Item` or :class:`dict`. For example, when the output of a
+    spider callback is evaluated, only instances of :class:`Item` or
+    :class:`dict` are passed to :ref:`item pipelines <topics-item-pipeline>`.
+
+    If you need instances of a custom class to be considered items by Scrapy,
+    you must inherit from either :class:`Item` or :class:`dict`.
+
+    Unlike instances of :class:`dict`, instances of :class:`Item` may be
+    :ref:`tracked <topics-leaks-trackrefs>` to debug memory leaks.
+    """
diff --git a/scrapy/spiders/feed.py b/scrapy/spiders/feed.py
index c566f0236..a4ff8010d 100644
--- a/scrapy/spiders/feed.py
+++ b/scrapy/spiders/feed.py
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ class XMLFeedSpider(Spider):
         """This method is called for the nodes matching the provided tag name
         (itertag). Receives the response and an Selector for each node.
         Overriding this method is mandatory. Otherwise, you spider won't work.
-        This method must return either a BaseItem, a Request, or a list
+        This method must return either an item, a request, or a list
         containing any of them.
         """
 
diff --git a/tests/test_loader.py b/tests/test_loader.py
index 701d568dc..f14714c75 100644
--- a/tests/test_loader.py
+++ b/tests/test_loader.py
@@ -601,7 +601,7 @@ class NoInputReprocessingItemLoader(BaseNoInputReprocessingLoader):
 
 class NoInputReprocessingFromItemTest(unittest.TestCase):
     """
-    Loaders initialized from loaded items must not reprocess fields (BaseItem instances)
+    Loaders initialized from loaded items must not reprocess fields (Item instances)
     """
     def test_avoid_reprocessing_with_initial_values_single(self):
         il = NoInputReprocessingItemLoader(item=NoInputReprocessingItem(title='foo'))
diff --git a/tests/test_utils_spider.py b/tests/test_utils_spider.py
index ee7d17062..3c87268ab 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils_spider.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils_spider.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import unittest
 
 from scrapy import Spider
 from scrapy.http import Request
-from scrapy.item import BaseItem
+from scrapy.item import Item
 from scrapy.utils.spider import iterate_spider_output, iter_spider_classes
 
 
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ class MySpider2(Spider):
 class UtilsSpidersTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_iterate_spider_output(self):
-        i = BaseItem()
+        i = Item()
         r = Request('http://scrapytest.org')
         o = object()