As children, many of us are fascinated with the process by which a bruco (masculine, plural: bruchi) – the Italian word for caterpillar – turns into a butterfly (farfalla).
The story begins with a caterpillar hatching from an egg (uovo). The caterpillar then stuffs itself with leaves, growing fatter and longer until one day, it stops eating, hangs upside down, and forms a cocoon (bozzolo) or chrysalis (crisalide). Within a short time – usually a week or two – the caterpillar transforms into butterfly or moth (falena).
Il bruco è diventato una farfalla.
The caterpillar turned into a butterfly.
By extension, bruco may also refer to larvae of other insects including beetles and worms.
An extremely popular book for kids is Il Piccolo Bruco Maisazio (The Very Hungry Caterpillar). You can listen to the Italian version of the story by watching the YouTube video below.
In the Tuscan dialect, bruco may also refer to a very poor person.
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.
