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 …
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: …
One way of saying hindrance or obstacle in Italian is intralcio. It comes from the verb intralciare which means ‘to hinder’, ‘to hamper‘ or ‘to interfere‘. intralcio hindrance / obstacle Intralcio is a masculine noun that begins with a vowel, so it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Some common verbs you will see …
One of the words for a dandelion in Italian is dente di leone. However, it is also known by a number of other names including insalata matta (literally ‘crazy salad’), soffione (literally ‘big blower’ due to the fluffy white head of seeds that can be easily blown off) and dente di cane (literally ‘dog’s tooth). …