My son recently turned one, and as young toddlers go, he’s pretty fearless. However, he does have one archenemy: the dreaded aspirapolvere (vacuum cleaner / hoover)! Aspirapolvere is an invariable masculine noun, so it does not change in its plural form. It is composed of the verb aspirare (to suck / to inhale) and polvere …
The Italian word for blanket is coperta (feminine, plural: coperte). It derives from the past participle of the verb coprire (to cover) which is coperto (covered). There are many different kinds of blankets, including: Note: pile is pronounced /pˈail/ and comes from the English word of the same spelling. Not to be confused with the …
The word for shower in Italian is doccia (feminine, plural: docce). It derives from the now-obsolete doccio, the term for an archaic kind of gutter or drainpipe. As in English, doccia can refer to the apparatus that produces the spray of water, the cubicle itself, and the act of showering. To take / to have …
You may be surprised to learn that a word Italians commonly used to denote the toilet bowl is water! It was abbreviated from the dated English term water closet, which is just another name for a typical flush toilet, or more broadly, the small room containing said toilet. Be aware, however, that in Italian the …
The word for bottle in Italian is the similar-sounding bottiglia (feminine, plural: bottiglie). Unlike many Italian words which can be traced directly to Latin, bottiglia comes from the Spanish botilla meaning wine vessel. Drinks generally come in two types: bottiglie di plastica (plastic bottles) or bottiglie di vetro (glass bottles). When talking about small bottles …
The word for attic, loft, or more specifically, the space inside the roof of a house, is sottotetto (masculine, plural: sottotetti) in Italian. It is composed of two words: sotto (under) and tetto (roof). A sottotetto is generally not naturally lit and ventilated due to a lack of windows. For this reason, it cannot be …