The adjective cervellotico in Italian translates in numerous ways including bizarre, illogical, irrational or odd. It can describe bizarre people, as well as things that don’t correspond to the truth or aren’t founded on reason.
Because it is an adjective, the ending changes according to the gender and/or plurality of the subject. For example:
Masculine
- un racconto cervellotico (a bizarre tale)
- dei ragionamenti cervellotici (bizarre ways of thinking)
- un uomo cervellotico (a bizarre man)
Feminine
- un’ipotesi cervellotica (a bizarre hypothesis)
- delle idee cervellotiche (bizarre ideas)
- una donna cervellotica (a bizarre woman)
Si è comportato in modo cervellotico.
He behaved in a bizarre way.
According to Sapere.it, it is thought to be a cross between the words cervello, which means brain, and zotico, which means crude or uncouth.
Some possible synonyms for this word in Italian include bislacco, strambo, bizzarro, strano and stravagante. It also forms the basis of the adverb cervelloticamente meaning bizarrely or oddly.
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.
