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 Arme was the ancient plural of arma (weapon) but it has since been replaced by armi.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 …
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 Italian word for cow is mucca (feminine, plural: mucche). As in English, the word refers to the female of a domesticated breed of ox that produces milk (latte) or beef (carne bovina). To milk a cow in Italian translates as mungere una mucca. Molti allevatori continuano a mungere le loro mucche a mano. Many …
The Italian word for peach is pesca (feminine, plural: pesche). Its etymology can be traced back to the classical Latin mala persica which is the word for the Persian apple tree. Important: Pesca is also the word for fishing in Italian. The two words are homonyms in that they are spelled and sound the same …