Semaforo, also known as a semaforo stradale, is the word for a traffic light in Italian. It is from the French ‘sémaphore’, which was formed irregularly from the Greek sēma ‘sign’ and –phoros ‘bearing’. If you feel this word looks familiar, that’s because it shares the same origin as the English word semaphore, a system …
A word that should be very easy for English speakers to remember is lampada, which means lamp in Italian. Its origin can be traced back to the Latin lampas -ădis, which in turn comes from the Greek lampás -ádos, a derivative of lámpō meaning ‘to shine’. Lampada is a feminine noun, so it takes the …
A person who is uninhibited, confident and sure of themselves can be called spigliato in Italian. It is the past participle of the verb spigliare, meaning “to make (someone) more relaxed and confident”. Because it is an adjective, the form changes depending on the gender and plurality of the noun in question: Spigliato can be …
Cooking dinner is one of the most labour-intensive chores of the day, especially when you’re tired and your children insist on performing acrobatics between your legs as you try to juggle the pots and pans on the stove. (And yes, I am talking from experience!) This is why many of us resort to take-away food, …
The generic word for any kind of large truck (US) or lorry (UK) in Italian is camion, which comes from the French word of the same meaning. Camion is an invariable masculine noun, which means that it does not change in the plural form. il camionthe truckun camiona truck i camionthe trucksdei camion(some) trucks Important: …
Today’s adverb invano should be familiar to everyone as the English equivalent is nearly identical, except that we provide a space between the two terms (in vain). Ho cercato di convincerli a scappare, ma è stato tutto invano. I tried to get them to escape, but it was all in vain. Interestingly, many Italians mistakenly …