Italian Word of the Day: Intramontabile (timeless / everlasting)

A wonderful Italian word I love throwing into conversation at every opportunity is intramontabile (plural: intramontabili) which is an adjective meaning timeless, everlasting, enduring, immortal or evergreen. Note that the e/i ending (singular/plural) doesn’t change according to the gender of the noun. It derives from the verb tramontare meaning to set (as in the setting …

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Italian Word of the Day: A crepapelle (to the point of bursting)

Crepapelle, or more specifically a crepapelle, is one of those Italian expressions that does not have a direct English equivalent. Comprising the words crepare (to crack / to die) and pelle (skin), it describes various actions that are carried out to the point of bursting or to the breaking point. The best way to understand …

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Italian Word of the Day: Attonito (astonished)

One way of saying astonished, speechless or shocked in Italian is attonito. Being an adjective, it also has a feminine form (attonita), as well as masculine and feminine plural forms (attoniti and attonite). The word has an interesting origin according to Treccani. It comes from the Latin attonitus which itself is a derivative of the …

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Italian Word of the Day: Senno di poi (hindsight)

Senno di poi is how you would say hindsight in Italian. As in English, it refers to the ability to evaluate or comprehend an event, but only after it has happened. Senno (masculine) means judgement / sense / wisdom, whereas poi is the word for then / later on / after, so the expression literally …

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Italian Word of the Day: Strofinaccio (rag / cloth / dish towel)

The word for any piece of cloth used for drying dishes or for household cleaning is strofinaccio (masculine, plural: strofinacci) in Italian. If we break it down into its component parts, we can see that it is composed of the verb strofinare (to rub) and the pejorative suffix -accio which denotes something bad or unattractive. …

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