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 …
Today’s word of the day sounds just like the action it is describing: the verb ringhiare (to growl). It comes from the Latin ringulare. Although it is principally used to describe the low guttural sound of hostility emitted by dogs (cani), it can also apply to other animals such as wolves (lupi) or bears (orsi). …
An interesting adjective in Italian is entusiasta which, given its resemblance to the English, you might have guessed means enthusiastic. Unlike many other Italian adjectives, which have a masculine form ending in -o and a feminine form ending in -a, the final letter of entusiasta does not change according to the gender. So, for example, …
The word assaggio (masculine, plural: assaggi) in Italian refers to a small portion of food or drink taken as a sample. In English, it is best translated as taste, but other possibilities include sip (when talking about drinks), bite or nibble to name a few. Combined with the verb fare (to do / make), you …
Sopravvissuto, the word for survivor in Italian, comes from the verb sopravvivere meaning to survive. It is formed of two parts: sopra (above) and vissuto (past participle of vivere ‘to live’). If you are talking about a woman instead of a man, the masculine sopravvissuto becomes the feminine sopravvissuta. Their respective plurals are sopravvissuti and …
Today, my husband and I discovered a brand-new technique to help our extremely fussy baby to sleep during the day: we hold him tightly in our arms while bouncing him on an exercise ball! The word for the intransitive verb to bounce in Italian is rimbalzare. It is formed from the prefix rin- (which is …