In Italian, the diminutive suffixes -ino / -otto / -etto are often added to the end of animal names to denote their offspring. A good example of this is our word of the day, gattino (masculine, plural: gattini), which means kitten. Gattino is simply the word gatto (cat) with -ino attached to the end. When …
Arachnophobia, or the fear of spiders, is one of the oldest and most common phobias in the world. This word and ragno (masculine, plural: ragni), the Italian word for spider, are both derived from the ancient Greek word arachne. It is estimated that approximately 1,600 types of spider exist in Italy, with the most common …
Today’s word of the day is part of our Italian Easter Word series. Each day during the week leading up to Easter, we’ll post a word that is related to this special time of year. Enjoy! 🐰 Coniglio (masculine, plural: conigli), the Italian word for rabbit or bunny, can be quite difficult for English speakers to pronounce …
The name Italians give to that mysterious underwater creature with eight legs is polpo. This term is used for both the living creature and the dish. Polpo is a masculine noun, and the plural is polpi. il polpoun polpo i polpidei polpi The octopus is a sea dwelling cephalopod known for being territorial, solitary and …
Just as in English, the word pesce (masculine, plural: pesci) can refer to the living aquatic animal, as well as any kind of culinary dish made out of the animal. If this word sounds familiar, it is because it shares the same etymological origin as the English word pescatarian (someone who eats fish but not …
If you are familiar with the English word lupine, it shouldn’t be too difficult to remember the word lupo (masculine, plural: lupi), which is the Italian for wolf. A wolf cub is known as a lupetto. This is also the term used for a cub scout in the young Scouts organisation and the mock turtleneck. …