Famigerato is an adjective that derives from the Latin word famigeratus, the past participle of famigerare meaning “to make famous”. In ancient Italian, the original meaning was famous, used in a positive or ironic sense, but over time, the meaning shifted to infamous or notorious. Adjectives such as famigerato always agree with the noun they …
In this article, we delve into the essence of the Italian adjective giocoso, which usually translates as playful or jovial. Giocoso is an adjective whose form changes depending on what it describes. In its masculine form, it ends in -o and in its feminine form, -a. The respective plurals are -i and -e. It comes …
Basso is one of those Italian words that has numerous translations in English, so let’s not waste any time and dive right in! Basso is first and foremost an adjective that comes from the Latin bassum. To make it feminine, simply swap the -o out for an -a to make bassa. The respective plural forms …
Stravolto is an adjective you can expect to hear fairly often in daily Italian conversation, but what does it mean? Let’s take a look now! Stravolto comes from the verb stravolgere which means “to turn something on its head” “to distort” or “to upset”, or in a more positive sense, “to revolutionise”. It is the …
In a world filled with diverse cultures and individuals, it’s all too common for biases and prejudices to arise before we even have a chance to truly understand each other. A person with these negative characteristics can be described as prevenuto in Italian. The adjective prevenuto is in its masculine form, indicated by its ending …
Today we’re going to be looking at odierno, an adjective that you will regularly encounter once you begin reading the advanced texts such as the news or academic papers. It literally means “relevant to the current day, age or era” and in English, it would generally translate as of today, today’s, current or modern. Odierno …