If you’ve ever been faced with a difficult or seemingly unresolvable problem, you could define it in Italian as una bella gatta da pelare, or literally, a beautiful female cat to skin.
avere una bella gatta da pelare
to have a difficult problem to resolve
- avere is an infinitive verb that means “to have”
- una bella gatta literally means “a beautiful cat” (using the feminine form gatta) but in this case, bella is being used emphatically to mean considerable or significant
- da pelare means “to skin” or “to peel” – the preposition da + infinitive verb is basically another way of saying che bisogna (i.e. una gatta che bisogna pelare = the cat that needs to be skinned)
So, where does this expression come from? Though its exact origins are uncertain, it has been hypothesised that it may refers to the ancient practice of capturing and skinning wildcats for their fur. If you’ve ever tried to give your domestic house cat a bath or cut its claws, you will know how challenging it can be keep to keep it under control, so imagine how difficult (and dangerous) it must have been to track down these cunning animals and skin them without damaging their precious fur!
A second, more humane hypothesis is that pelare doesn’t actually refer to the removal of the skin but rather the fur itself. In fact, if we look at the dictionary Treccani, the first definition provided for pelare is Privare dei peli, togliere i peli dalla superficie cutanea, strappandoli, raschiandoli… which translates to Plucking hair, removing hair from the skin’s surface by plucking it, scraping it… Let us hope that this is the true origin story of this expression, for the sake of our feline friends!
Some have suggested it might also be related to the English expression “There are more ways than one to skin a cat” but there is no proof of this as far as I can tell.
Why the expression suggests that female cats – le gatte – are more difficult to skin or de-hair than male gatti is unknown. Both can be pretty ferocious in my experience!
Some possible English equivalents to this expression include:
- to be a tough nut to crack
- to be in a quandry
You might also hear the variation prendersi una bella gatta da pelare which means “to take on a difficult task.”
Questo progetto è una bella gatta da pelare!
This project is a tough nut to crack!
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.
