The Italian word for peach is pesca (feminine, plural: pesche). Its etymology can be traced back to the classical Latin mala persica which is the word for the Persian apple tree. Important: Pesca is also the word for fishing in Italian. The two words are homonyms in that they are spelled and sound the same but have different meanings. Some verbs you'll often see with pesca … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Pesca (peach)
Food
Italian Word of the Day: Peperone (bell pepper)
The word for a pepper in Italian is peperone (masculine, plural: peperoni). Despite most frequently being used to describe the bell pepper (otherwise known as the sweet pepper), it can denote almost any pepper in the Capsicum annuum family. The word derives from the Latin piper which actually denotes the condiment pepper rather than the fruit. In addition to being the name of the fruit, … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Peperone (bell pepper)
Italian Word of the Day: Farina (flour)
An ingredient that serves as the basis for a wide variety of baked goods is flour, known as farina (feminine, plural: farine) in Italian. It derives from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. In addition to the standard white variety (farina bianca), there are many different types including: farina di … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Farina (flour)
Italian Word of the Day: Intrippare (to stuff oneself / to obsess)
Last night at the dinner table, our six month old son - who usually has the attention span of a goldfish - spent the entire duration of our meal fixated on a stuffed toy horse, analysing every hoof, hair and marking on its colourful body. To describe this kind of behaviour, there is a great verb in Italian: intrippare. Now if you look the verb up in authoritative dictionaries like … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Intrippare (to stuff oneself / to obsess)
Italian Word of the Day: Ciambella (donut / ring-shaped cake)
In Italian, ciambella (feminine, plural: ciambelle) refers to any kind of round ring-shaped cake, pastry or cookie. From the American-style donut, also known as a ciambellina (lit: little ring), to the classic Italian ciambellone cake, pretty much any dessert with a hole in the middle falls into this category! In its very basic form, the ciambella is prepared using: flour (farina)eggs … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Ciambella (donut / ring-shaped cake)
Italian Word of the Day: Sazio (full / satisfied)
In Italy, the polite way of saying that you are full is sazio after a meal if you are a man or sazia if you are a woman. (The respective plural forms are sazi and sazie.) It shares the same origin as the English words sate and satiated. Che mangiata! Sono proprio sazio! Era tutto squisito! What a meal! I'm really full! Everything was delicious! Sazio ≠ pienoPieno is the … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Sazio (full / satisfied)