The word for alarm in Italian is allarme (masculine, plural: allarmi). It derives from the military expression All’arme! (To arms!) which was, and still is, a command to soldiers to take up their weapons and be ready to fight. Arme was the ancient plural of arma (weapon) but it has since been replaced by armi. …
Ever since we began feeling the first aches and pains of age, my husband and I have jokingly started calling each other rottame (masculine, plural: rottami). It derives from rotto, the past participle of the verb rompere (to break), and the suffix -ame whose purpose is to form collective nouns from simple nouns, often with …
Al di là is an adverbial phrase that translates as on the other side or beyond. It is made up of the following components: Al di là c’era il deserto, immenso e dominato da dune enormi. Beyond lay the desert, immense and dominated by enormous dunes. When used as a preposition, it translates as on …
The Italian word balzo (masculine, plural: balzi) refers to the sudden movement of an object (usually a ball or something elastic) after it rebounds off the ground or any hard surface. Possible translations in English include bounce, leap, spring, and jump. It derives from the verb balzare meaning to bounce. The expression fare un balzo …
The Italian word for fox is volpe (feminine, plural: volpi). It derives from the Latin word vulpes of the same meaning. Two species of fox with which most people are familiar are the volpe rossa (red fox) and the volpe artica (arctic fox). In total, there are twelve separate extant species and four fossil species. …
The adjective cervellotico in Italian translates in numerous ways including bizarre, illogical, irrational or odd. It can describe bizarre people, as well as things that don’t correspond to the truth or aren’t founded on reason. Because it is an adjective, the ending changes according to the gender and/or plurality of the subject. For example: Masculine …