Crepacuore (masculine, plural: crepacuori) is one possible translation for heartbreak or broken heart in Italian.
It is made up of two terms: the verb crepare, which is a colloquial way of saying to die, and cuore, the word for heart.
Below are a couple of verbs you might hear used with this word:
- morire di crepacuore = to die of a broken heart
- soffrire di crepacuore = to suffer from a broken heart
Dopo meno di un mese dalla scomparsa del marito, la vedova morì di crepacuore.
Less than a month after her husband’s passing, the widow died of a broken heart.
If you want to describe someone as being brokenhearted, there are a few possible translations you can choose between:
- avere il cuore spezzato = to have a broken heart (lit. to have a fragmented heart)
- avere il cuore infranto = to have a broken heart (lit. to have a shattered heart)
- avere il cuore a pezzi = to have a broken heart (lit. to have a heart in pieces)
- essere affranto = to be broken, devastated, heartbroken
To break someone’s heart, on the other hand, usually translates as spezzare il cuore.
Mi si spezza il cuore a vederlo ridotto così.
It breaks my heart to see him like that.
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.
