If you happen to meet someone who simply doesn’t care about other people’s problems or the issues facing the world, they may be suffering from what is called menefreghismo in Italian (masculine, plural: menefreghismi). Sadly, there isn’t really a word-for-word translation for menefreghismo in English, which is a shame because we could definitely benefit from …
My son recently turned one, and as young toddlers go, he’s pretty fearless. However, he does have one archenemy: the dreaded aspirapolvere (vacuum cleaner / hoover)! Aspirapolvere is an invariable masculine noun, so it does not change in its plural form. It is composed of the verb aspirare (to suck / to inhale) and polvere …
If you can imagine a dog sinking its teeth into your favourite pair of shoes and refusing to let go no matter how hard you pull, you are already halfway to understanding the meaning of the adjective accanito! Accanito itself derives from the word for dog in Italian, which is cane. It is used to …
The generic word used to indicate any woman, other than the mother, who takes care of a child is tata (feminine, plural: tate) in Italian. Some possible translations in English include babysitting, nanny and childminder. Usually, tata denotes a woman whose full-time profession is childminding, rather than a teenager or young woman who occasionally babysits. …
Do you want to talk about something truly worthy of praise? Then it’s time to learn the adjective eccellente, which is the Italian word for excellent! Eccellente‘s form remains the same regardless of whether you are describing a masculine or feminine subject. In its plural form, it becomes eccellenti with an -i on the end. …
The word bruciapelo (masculine, invariable) is mostly seen in the expression a bruciapelo which literally means point-blank or at point-blank range. It is formed of two words: the verb bruciare (to burn) and the noun pelo (a single body hair). The idea is that if a gun is shot at very close range, it can …