Heather Broster
There are three words I consistently use to describe my three-year-old son in Italian: birichino, monello and today’s word, birbone. birbone When birbone conveys the meaning dirty or underhanded, it almost always appears in the expression (giocare) un tiro birbone (to play a dirty trick). Mi hai giocato un tiro birbone. You played a dirty …
When my son puts on his wellies, the first thing he does is look for a muddy puddle to jump into, just like his favourite character, Peppa Pig! The Italian word for mud is the fittingly sounding fango. It is derived from the Gothic term *fanigs, meaning muddy. Because it is a masculine noun, it …
The other day at the park, a man allowed his leash-less dog to bound up to my three-year-old, and had the nerve to tell me to keep an eye on my child (who was holding his grandmother’s hand at the time). Did I lose my cool? No, but I was *this* close! When you reach …
We often get asked at Daily Italian Words: does the word perché mean because or why in Italian? The answer to that is: both! perché Perché is made up of two words: per (for) and che (that). It can function as an interrogative adverb, allowing you to ask the question why, or as a subordinating …
To describe someone who is deeply in love in Italian, you can use the word innamorato or innamorata. innamorato It derives from the verbs innamorare (to enchant / make people fall in love with you) and innamorarsi (to fall in love), which in turn are derivatives of the noun amore (love) with the prefix in-. …
Have you ever had to endure a lengthy and convoluted explanation or discussion that left you feeling more confused than when you started? If so, you could aptly describe it with an adjective that’s just as much of a mouthful as the discourse it depicts: arzigogolato. Arzigogolato is an adjective that derives from the verb …