Italian Word of the Day: Anno bisestile (leap year)

Italian for "leap year"

The Italian word for leap year is anno bisestile, which should be easy to remember if you are already familiar with the term bissextile year, a synonym for leap year. anno bisestile leap year The word bisestile is derived from the Latin term “bissextilis (annus)” or “bissextilis (annus),” meaning ‘the year of the bissextus,’ which …

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Italian Word of the Day: Mezzogiorno (noon / midday)

We already discussed mezzanotte (midnight) in a previous post, so now it’s time to take a look at the other end of the temporal spectrum, mezzogiorno (noon / midday). Mezzogiorno is the combination of the words mezzo (half or halfway) and giorno (day). It is a masculine noun, so it takes the following definite and …

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Italian Word of the Day: Pomeriggio (afternoon)

What comes after il mattino (the morning) and precedes la sera (the evening)? Il pomeriggio (the afternoon), of course! pomeriggio afternoon According to Treccani, this term is a cross between the Latin adjective pomeridiano (the adjective “afternoon”) and meriggio (a synonym for mezzogiorno – midday – that refers to the hours at which the sun …

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Italian Word of the Day: Stasera (this evening / tonight)

Italian word "stasera"

Stasera, meaning this evening, is one of the very first and most essential adverbs of time you’ll encounter when delving into the Italian language. It is the combination of the adjective questa (this), with the removal of the initial que-, and sera (evening). stasera this evening In everyday conversation, stasera is used more commonly than …

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Italian Word of the Day: Minuto (minute)

Each hour (ora) of the day consists of sixty minutes, which in Italian are known as minuti (singular: minuto). It comes from the late Latin minutum, which means particle, and is the neuter noun form of the adjective minutus. minuto minute Because minuto is a masculine noun, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: …

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Italian Word of the Day: Sera (evening)

Following the morning (mattina) and the afternoon (pomeriggio), we experience the penultimate phase of the day, which is sera (evening). This feminine noun, whose plural form is sere, takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Sera is derived from the late Latin sēra, which is an ellipsis of sera dies (“late part of the day”). …

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