Following the morning (mattina) and the afternoon (pomeriggio), we experience the penultimate phase of the day, which is sera (evening). This feminine noun, whose plural form is sere, takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Sera is derived from the late Latin sēra, which is an ellipsis of sera dies (“late part of the day”). …
Anyone who knows me is aware of my fondness for whimsical words, and that’s precisely what prompted me to write about the verb squagliare today! I recently came across it in a friend’s Facebook post in which he describes the feeling of “melting” in the 97°F heat currently engulfing Italy. (I must admit, it’s at …
Humans have devised various ways to divide time, encompassing the tiniest increments of seconds and minutes to the vast expanse of years, decades, and centuries. Tucked right in the middle lies the unassuming month, known as mese in Italian, serving as the fundamental unit for dividing our calendar year. Mese is a masculine noun in …
It should be pretty easy to guess the meaning of the word momento just by mentally removing the word-final o! Momento comes from the Latin momentum, derived from the root of movere meaning “to move”. Because it is a masculine noun, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Aspetta un momento, non sono ancora …
Famigerato is an adjective that derives from the Latin word famigeratus, the past participle of famigerare meaning “to make famous”. In ancient Italian, the original meaning was famous, used in a positive or ironic sense, but over time, the meaning shifted to infamous or notorious. Adjectives such as famigerato always agree with the noun they …
The moment I entered an Italian bathroom for the first time, I was taken aback by the presence of a peculiar fixture resembling a secondary sink placed next to the toilet. Despite being completely and utterly unfamiliar with it, it didn’t require much imagination to deduce its true purpose! The bidet, pronounced as bidè in …