If an Italian tells you they have influenza, don’t immediately reach for the hand sanitiser. Yes, we might be home in bed, surviving on broth and re-rurns, but we could just as easily be casually letting you know we have certain power and connections. Because the word influenza in Italian wears two hats: it means …
Do you have a quick-tempered person in your life? Or perhaps you are the irascible one? In either case, it’s worth learning the Italian adjective irascibile, which describes a person’s tendency to be easily angered. irascibile quick-tempered / irascible The adjective irascible in English certainly hasn’t fallen out of use, but it is definitely used …
Recent heatwaves in Italy and elsewhere across the world have made one household item absolutely indispensable – il ventilatore, or fan in English. ventilatore fan / ventilator Ventilatore is a masculine noun made of up two parts: the verb ventilare (to air out / ventilate) and the suffix -tore, indicating a person or thing that …
Nobody wants to be called un pistola in certain parts of Italy. And no, it has nothing dangerous attached to it, even if the word does sound suspiciously like the English pistol. Which, as it turns out, is also one of its meanings. But only one. Let’s find out the rest! pistola pistol 1. PISTOLA …
I don’t know about you, but it’s hard for me to imagine a world without the ever-present tastiera, which is the Italian word for keyboard. Back in school in the ’90s, I wrote out all my notes by hand, and there’s plenty of evidence suggesting that this method can improve memory retention. Still, when it …
One of the primary ways we engage with the word is through our mani (hands), or more specifically, our fingers. In Italian, the word for a single digit is the masculine il dito, while the most commonly used plural is the feminine le dita. We will delve deeper into this phenomenon of masculine nouns becoming …