Heather Broster
Because I’ll be turning 40 at the beginning of next year, I recently started going to the gym – or palestra in Italian – five days a week. Call it my crisi di mezza età (mid-life crisis), but I feel so much better for it. I have more energia (energy) to chase around my four-year-old, …
One of the hottest months of the year in the northern hemisphere is August, which is known as agosto in Italian. agosto August Agosto is the eight month (ottavo mese) of the year according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars and it is made up of 31 days (trentun giorni). As is the case with …
The English word space carries various meanings, and the good news for learners is that the Italian equivalent, spazio, covers nearly all of these meanings as well. spazio space Before we dive in, let’s quickly explore its etymology. Spazio derives from the Latin spatium, a word of uncertain origin that encompasses the same meanings as …
Today we’re going to be investigating a lovely word that every learner of Italian should master – dunque – which translates to so, then, therefore or well depending on the surrounding context. dunque so / then / therefore / well Dunque comes from the Vulgar Latin *dunquam, which is a cross of the Vulgar Latin …
A bastian contrario is a polemical individual who adopts opinions and attitudes that go against those held by the majority, so fare il bastian contrario can be translated as “to be contrary” or “to be a contrarian.” fare il bastian contrario to be contrary Before we take a look at the word bastian, which has …
Today we’re going to be looking at the short yet fun word oibò! According to Treccani, oibò (also written ohibò with an “h”), is an exclamation of onomatopoeic origin used to express a range of emotions, including indignation, nausea, contempt, surprise, and disapproval. Some possible translations include oh, well, oh my, darn and my goodness. …