The Italian term sasso is fairly comprehensive in that it can be used to denote anything rock-like, from the smallest pebbles and stones to rocks, boulders, and even larger masses. In fact, it can even refer to rock faces and mountains, especially in toponyms such as Gran Sasso d’Italia, a massif in the Apennine Mountains …
Bancomat is the commercial name of the electronic system that allows bank customers to make withdrawals and purchases, and perform other accounting operations from ATMs. However, in everyday speech, you will commonly hear it used to denote both: It is the compilation of the words banco (in the sense of banca ‘bank’) and mat, an …
If you are familiar with the word tortuous in English, you should have no trouble remembering its Italian equivalent tortuoso, which usually translates as windy or winding in everyday English. Adjectives such as tortuoso always agree with the noun they describe, which means that they have to demonstrate whether they are masculine or feminine and …
The word for chin in Italian is mento. It derives from the Latin mentum of the same meaning. Being a masculine noun, mento takes the following definite and indefinite articles: il mentothe chinun mentoa chin i mentithe chinsdei menti(some) chins Mi sono svegliato con un brufolo enorme sul mento! I woke up with a huge …
The word for an hourglass or egg timer in Italian is clessidra. It derives from the Latin clepsydra which in turn comes from the Greek klepsýdra (water clock). Clessidra is a feminine noun and takes the following articles: Hourglasses were commonly used by ancient people to measure il passaggio del tempo (the passage of time) …
Today’s word of the day is fiuto, which comes from the verb fiutare meaning to to smell / to sniff. Fiuto is a masculine noun, so it takes the following definite and indefinite articles. il fiutoun fiuto i fiutidei fiuti Fiuto is most frequently used to talk about an animal’s sense of smell, or even …