Do you know someone who can talk the hind legs off a donkey? If so, you’ll definitely be keen to learn today’s word of the day!
Chiacchierone is what you would call a very talkative man, with the best English translation being chatterbox or talker.
The feminine and plural equivalents are as follows:
- chiacchierona = singular, feminine
- chiacchieroni = plural, masculine
- chiacchierone = plural, feminine (as you may have noticed, it is the same as the masculine singular)
Mio padre è noto nel villaggio per essere un gran chiacchierone.
My father is known in the village as a chatterbox.
It derives from the verb chiacchierare which means to chat and is related to the terms chiacchiere (chit-chat, small talk), chiacchierata (gossip) and chiacchierato (a person people gossip about).
In a pejorative sense, it can also refer to someone who is incapable of keeping a secret. Possible English translations include blabbermouth and bigmouth.
Non dire niente a quel chiacchierone. Lo spiffererà a tutti!
Don’t say anything to that blabbermouth. He’ll tell everyone!
Chiacchierone, along with its feminine and plural equivalents, also functions as an adjective when it modifies a noun. For example, you can say una ragazza chiacchierona (a chatty girl) or i bambini chiacchieroni (the talkative children).
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.
