If you are shocked or stunned by something to the extent that all colour drains from your face, a great word you can use to describe this feeling in Italian is allibito.
allibito
shocked / stunned
Allibito is an adjective whose ending changes in accordance with the gender and number of the subject. If the subject is masculine, it remains allibito with the -o ending. The feminine equivalent is allibita while their respective plurals are allibiti and allibite.
Mi ha guardato allibito quando ha sentito la notizia.
He looked at me with a shocked expression when he heard the news.
It comes from the verb allibire which means to go pale / white (with fear, shock, amazement, disgust).
You will often see allibito used with the verb rimanere (to remain), as in the following example:
Sono rimasto allibito dalla sua maleducazione.
I was shocked by his rudeness.
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.
