Have you ever made a mistake so big that it has continued to haunt you over the years? Then strafalcione is the word for you!
Because strafalcione is a masculine noun starting with the consonants st-, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles:
lo strafalcione
the big mistake
uno strafalcione
a big mistake
gli strafalcioni
the big mistakes
degli strafalcioni
(some) big mistakes
A strafalcione is the kind of big mistake, blunder or clanger one generally makes when writing or speaking. For example, a student might receive a poor grade for submitting an assignment pieno di strafalcioni (full of mistakes), just as a politician might become a laughing stock due to a single strafalcione in his speech.
Il docente ha detto uno strafalcione oggi. – Cos’ha detto? – Ha detto che l’Italia è più grande dell’America!
The teacher dropped a real clanger today. – What did he say? – He said that Italy is bigger than America!
The word derives from the verb strafalciare, which means to work poorly, or to make a big mistake out of ignorance or carelessness. The verb is the combination of falciare (to mow, to cut, to scythe) and the prefix stra- meaning ‘extra‘ or ‘over‘.
By extension, strafalcione may also denote a man who works in a careless manner, with strafalciona being the feminine equivalent.
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.
