Heather Broster
The Italian translation for magnificent is magnifico. Both words can ultimately be traced back to the Latin magnifĭcus, which is a combination of magnus (big) and facere (to do). Because magnifico is an adjective, the ending changes depending on whether you are talking about a masculine, feminine or plural subject. Se sali in cima alla …
Dolce vita or la dolce vita is Italian for the sweet life but when combined into a single word, dolcevita, we get the term for the kind of sweater Americans call a turtleneck and the British call a polo neck. What’s interesting is that dolcevita apparently gets its name from the 1960s film by Fellini, …
The word for to gossip in Italian is pettegolare. It comes from the Venetian verb petegolar (to gossip) and the Venetian noun petegolo (gossip). When pettegolare is followed by a direct object, the preposition su (on / about / above) or su + a definite article (sul, sulla, sui, sugli, sulle) is required. Dai, smettila …
Have you ever had someone ask you a question, only to blank out completely even though you know the answer? I know I have! If you’re faced with this situation in Italian, you can always fall back on the response « Non mi ricordo » which quite literally means « I can’t remember ». However …
So deeply intertwined are olives and Italian cuisine that it is almost impossible to imagine one existing without the other. The word for these delectable oval fruits in Italian is oliva (feminine, plural: olive) whereas the tree which produces them is called olivo (masculine, plural: olivi). Did you know that…?An alternative word for oliva is …
The Italian translation for sweet and sour, as in a sweet food or drink with a sour aftertaste produced by vinegar or lemon, is agrodolce. Derived from the French aigre-doux, it is a combination of the words agro (tart, sour) and dolce (sweet). A very popular sauce in Italy is salsa agrodolce, a traditional sweet-and-sour …