Italian Word of the Day: Ghianda (acorn)

The word for acorn in Italian is ghianda. 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). ghianda acorn Ghianda is a feminine noun, so it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Acorns make up the diet of …

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Italian Word of the Day: Matto (crazy)

Matto is one of many ways you can translate the word crazy into Italian. It is thought to come from the late Latin mattus, which means drunk, and later assumed the meaning of stupid before acquiring its current definition. Because matto is an adjective, the masculine singular ending –o changes to –a for the feminine …

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Italian Word of the Day: Tata (babysitter / nanny)

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. …

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Italian Word of the Day: Artista (artist)

The word for an artist in Italian is artista. Despite the -a ending, this noun applies to both male and female artists, with the respective plurals being artisti (for men or mixed groups) and artiste (for women). One way of telling whether the artist in question is male or female is by looking at the …

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Italian Word of the Day: Bambola (doll)

The word for doll is bambola (feminine, plural: bambole) in Italian. Like the English equivalent, it is used to describe any small model of a human figure, typically a baby, girl or woman. Similar to the word bambino (child), bambola is a derivative of bambo, which is an obsolete term meaning child or foolish. Many …

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Italian Word of the Day: Paghetta (pocket money / allowance)

When I was a child, I would always look forward to Saturday mornings, as that was the day I’d receive a dollar from my dad to put towards whatever toy I was hankering after at the time. In Italian, the word for pocket money or allowance is paghetta (feminine, plural: paghette). Paghetta is the diminutive …

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