The word for acorn in Italian is ghianda (feminine, plural: ghiande). The fruit of the oak tree (quercia), it has the appearance of a smooth oval nut with a rough cup-like hat called a cupule (cupola). Acorns make up the diet of a surprising range of animals including birds like ducks (papere) and pigeons (piccioni), …
The Italian word for weather is tempo (masculine, plural: tempi). It comes from the Latin tempus meaning time – and yes, before you say anything, we are fully aware that tempo is also the word for time in Italian. However, we won’t be covering this definition here, as it deserves a blog post all of …
The word for clover in Italian is trifoglio (masculine, plural: trifogli). It comes from the Latin trifolium which is the combination of the prefix tri- (meaning three) and folium (meaning leaf). If the word trifoglio sounds familiar, that’s because clover is also known by the alternative common name trefoil in English. An average of around …
Today is Arbor Day (La Festa degli Alberi), a holiday dedicated to planting trees, so what better word to choose as ‘word of the day’ than albero (masculine, plural: alberi). It comes from the Latin arbor of the same meaning. Learn with our video Some verbs that often appear alongside albero include: piantare un albero …
The word for the terrifying natural phenomenon known as an earthquake is terremoto in Italian (masculine, plural: terremoti), which comes from the Latin terrae motus meaning ‘movement of the earth’. Learn with our video An earthquake occurs when pressure, building up within rocks of the earth‘s crust (crosta terrestre), is released in a sudden burst …
The Italian word for planet is pianeta, which comes from the Greek planetes via the Latin planeta. Learn with our video It would be logical to assume that it is a feminine noun given that it ends in the letter ‘a‘, but it is actually masculine. This is likely because the archaic version of the …