Lumaca is the name in Italian for all terrestrial (and sometimes marine) pulmonate gastropods that are either devoid of a shell, or carry a shell that isn’t visible to the naked eye. The English word for these creatures is slug. It is a feminine noun whose plural form is lumache, and takes the following definite …
The Italian word for eagle is aquila. Both the Italian and English terms share the same origin, which is the Latin aquila. Because aquila is a feminine noun that starts with a vowel, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: l’aquilathe eagleun’aquilaan eagle le aquilethe eaglesdelle aquile(some) eagles Two of the most well-known eagles …
I spent most of my early life living in big cities, but for the past seven years, I’ve had the immense privilege of being able to live by the mare (sea). There is nothing quite like breathing in the fresh salty air and falling asleep to the sound of the waves and the gabbiani (seagulls)! …
I’ve been stung by many api (bees) and vespe (wasps) in my lifetime, but I thank my lucky stars that I’ve never been on the receiving end of a calabrone sting! The word calabrone comes from the Latin crabronem of the same meaning. Calabrone is a masculine noun. The plural is calabroni. un calabroneil calabrone …
Although the words lizard and lucertola share the same Latin origin – the word lacertus which meant lizard, sea fish or muscle – I think many of you would agree that the Italian has a much prettier ring to it! Lucertola is a feminine singular noun that becomes lucertole in its plural form. la lucertolauna …
Today is Thanksgiving (Festa del Ringraziamento) in the United States, and since many of our readers are Italian Americans, we decided to dedicate today’s word to the humble centrepiece of the Thanksgiving dinner table: the tacchino (turkey). Tacchino is a masculine noun ending in -o, making its plural form tacchini. Note that the feminine versions …