Today’s Italian word is soqquadro (masculine, plural: soqquadri), which can translate in a number of ways in English including upside-down, disarray, mess, shambles, cluttered and topsy-turvy, just to name a few! It comes from the expression sotto quadro (lit. under square), which was used by builders to refer to off-kilter or crooked structural elements that …
The Italian word squillo is a masculine noun that generally translates as ring (or “ringing sound”) but also buzz or jingle depending on the device producing the sound. It derives from the verb squillare which means, you guessed it, “to ring”. It is normally used in reference to the sound made by a telephone (telefono), …
Even if you know little to no Italian, it doesn’t take a great leap of the imagination to figure out that equinozio means equinox. Both words refer to the biannual date at which the sun crosses the celestial equator, resulting in a day and night of approximately equal length all over the planet. It derives …
The word nonostante in Italian is the combination of non (no / not) and ostante (the present participle of the verb ostare meaning to impede). It is used to express a contrast between two things and tends to be more common in writing than in speaking. While normally written as one word these days, the …
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 …
Battibecco is an Italian word that can be translated to mean quarrel or squabble in English. It is the combination of the verb battere, which means “to hit” or “to beat”, and the masculine noun becco, which means the beak of a bird. Because it is a masculine noun, it takes the following definite and …