Bancomat is the commercial name of the electronic system that allows bank customers to make withdrawals and purchases, and perform other accounting operations from ATMs. However, in everyday speech, you will commonly hear it used to denote both: It is the compilation of the words banco (in the sense of banca ‘bank’) and mat, an …
The word for chin in Italian is mento. It derives from the Latin mentum of the same meaning. Being a masculine noun, mento takes the following definite and indefinite articles: il mentothe chinun mentoa chin i mentithe chinsdei menti(some) chins Mi sono svegliato con un brufolo enorme sul mento! I woke up with a huge …
The word for an hourglass or egg timer in Italian is clessidra. It derives from the Latin clepsydra which in turn comes from the Greek klepsýdra (water clock). Clessidra is a feminine noun and takes the following articles: Hourglasses were commonly used by ancient people to measure il passaggio del tempo (the passage of time) …
Today’s word of the day is fiuto, which comes from the verb fiutare meaning to to smell / to sniff. fiuto sense of smell / instinct Fiuto is a masculine noun, so it takes the following definite and indefinite articles. il fiutoun fiuto i fiutidei fiuti Fiuto is most frequently used to talk about an …
Tea will forever be my preferred hot drink, whether I’m at home, in a coffee shop, or on the road travelling. And if someone serves me a bad cuppa in the morning – well – that’s enough to put me in a bad mood for the rest of my day! Italians have the same affinity …
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 …