The word felpa in Italian comes from the old French felpe. It is used to indicate, not only a sweatshirt or hoodie, but also the fleece from which it is made.
Because it is a feminine noun, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles:
la felpa
the sweatshirt
una felpa
a sweatshirt
le felpe
the sweatshirts
delle felpe
(some) sweatshirts
Mi sono messo una felpa perché sentivo freddo.
I put on a sweatshirt because I was cold.
Vorrei comprarmi una nuova tuta di felpa.
I’d like to buy myself a new fleece tracksuit.
A derivative of felpa is the adjective felpato which, in addition to translating as fleecy, has also acquired the figurative meaning of stealthy or silent (e.g. camminare a passi felpati = to walk softly). This is likely because fleece has the ability to muffle the sound of whatever it encompasses.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
