While listening to my favourite Italian radio station, Radio Italia, earlier today, one of the presenters used a fun little word I’d never written about before — but it absolutely deserves a spot on this website: calzante.
calzante
well-fitting / snug / suitable
As you might guess just by looking at it, calzante comes from the verb calzare, which means both “to put on” (an item of clothing) and “to fit.” Calzare itself traces back to the Latin calceare, meaning “to put on one’s shoes.” It is also related to the noun calza, the Italian word for a sock.
At its core, calzante is an adjective used to describe something—usually some kind of footwear—that fits well. In English, we might translate it as well-fitting or snug. Because it is an adjective that ends in -e, it only has two forms: the singular calzante used to describe singular masculine and feminine nouns, and the plural calzanti.
- una scarpa calzante = a well-fitting shoe
- delle scarpe calzanti = well-fitting shoes
- uno stivale calzante = a well-fitting boot
- degli stivali calzanti = well-fitting boots
Queste scarpe sono perfettamente calzanti.
These shoes fit perfectly.
As is the case with many adjectives, it has both a literal and figurative meaning, with the latter being the most popular use of the word. In a figurative sense, calzante refers to something that is suitable, apt, fitting or becoming. It is often used to describe opinioni (opinions), decisioni (decisions), esempi (examples), descrizioni (descriptions), and risposte (responses).
È un paragone molto calzante.
That’s a very fitting comparison.
Interestingly, calzante can also be used as a noun meaning shoehorn, making it a synonym for calzascarpe.
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.
