Is your child constantly bouncing off the walls, running on a seemingly endless source of energy? If this is the case, you can describe him or her as being “covered in quicksilver” in Italian. The exact idiom is as follows:
avere l’argento vivo addosso
to be fidgety / energetic / restless
Argento vivo, literally translated as “living silver,” is the Italian term for quicksilver, an alternate name for liquid metal mercury. This idiom draws a parallel between a lively, restless or energetic person, akin to what English speakers might refer to as a “live wire,” and quicksilver’s characteristic tendency to scatter in all directions in tiny, elusive drops.
Ci sono giorni in cui mi sveglio di cattivo umore e altri in cui mi sento come se avessi l’argento vivo addosso!
There are days when I wake up in a bad mood and others when I feel like a live wire!
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
