In Italian, the diminutive suffixes -ino / -otto / -etto are often added to the end of animal names to denote their offspring. A good example of this is our word of the day, gattino (masculine, plural: gattini), which means kitten. Gattino is simply the word gatto (cat) with -ino attached to the end. When …
It is believed that the words jewel and gioiello (masculine, plural: gioielli) are both derived from the Latin word iocus, meaning joke or jest. In its plural form, gioielli translates as either jewels or the mass noun jewellery. Mia nonna tiene tanti gioielli dentro una scatola nella sua stanza. My grandma keeps lots of jewellery inside a box …
When Italians talk about money, they normally use the word soldi in everyday conversation. It is the plural of the word soldo, the name given to the Italian medieval silver coin, issued for the first time by Emperor Enrico VI in the late 12th century. The name derives from the late Roman coin solidus. Ho risparmiato abbastanza …
We’ve already looked at the word for woman (donna), so now it’s time to look at the other half of the human equation! The word for man in Italian is uomo (masculine, plural: uomini). Similar to English, the word uomo can be used to refer to an adult human male or more generally, the human …
Arachnophobia, or the fear of spiders, is one of the oldest and most common phobias in the world. This word and ragno (masculine, plural: ragni), the Italian word for spider, are both derived from the ancient Greek word arachne. It is estimated that approximately 1,600 types of spider exist in Italy, with the most common …
Today’s word of the day is part of our Italian Easter Word series. Each day during the week leading up to Easter, we’ll post a word that is related to this special time of year. Enjoy! 🐰 Coniglio (masculine, plural: conigli), the Italian word for rabbit or bunny, can be quite difficult for English speakers to pronounce …