Today’s post is all about man’s best friend! The word for dog in Italian is cane (plural: cani), which is easy to remember as it sounds similar to the word canine. It comes from the Latin canis meaning dog. The feminine of cane is cagna (bitch). In addition to referring to a bad or nasty …
The word for garden in Italian is giardino (masculine, plural: giardini). Both come from the French jardin which in turn derives from the Germanic gart or garto. Giardino can refer to any kind of garden, from the small variety (giardinetto) to the stately kinds that surround large houses. Some of the most popular types include: …
The Italian word frutta, like the word fruit in English, is a singular collective noun that refers to the category fruit in general, or a collection of fruit on display in a basket. It may also specifically denote the fruit course Italians tend to consume at the end of lunch. Frutta is almost always used …
My husband and I are extremely lucky live just a stone’s throw away from the beach, which translates as spiaggia (feminine, plural: spiagge) in Italian. It is a derivative of the now-obsolete word piaggia which means a variety of things including slope, shore and land. Below are the verbs you’ll most often see used with …
Many teenagers and some unfortunate adults suffer terribly from brufoli (masculine, singular: brufolo), the Italian word for pimples, zits or spots. An alternative spelling for brufolo is bruffolo with two Fs. Both are considered correct. According to Treccani, the word is thought to be a blend of the Latin terms verruca (wart) and rufulus (reddish, …
The word for summer in Italian is estate (feminine, plural: estati). What is considered the first day of summer (il primo giorno d’estate) depends on whether you are using the meteorological (meteorologico) or astronomical (astronomico) definition of the seasons. According to the meteorological definition, summer always begins on June 1st and lasts until August 31st, …