Peloso is an Italian adjective that may describe anything with a soft hair-like texture. This means that it can translate as any one of the following terms in English: fluffy, hairy, furry, fuzzy, wooly or shaggy. It comes from the word pelo which means hair.
- un gatto peloso = a fluffy cat
- un braccio peloso = a hairy arm
- una foglia pelosa = a fuzzy/furry leaf
- un tessuto peloso = a woolly fabric
- un cane peloso = a shaggy dog
In Italian, adjectives always agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. Those ending in o have four forms – masculine, feminine, singular and plural – as you can see below:
- peloso (masculine, singular)
- pelosa (feminine, singular)
- pelosi (masculine, plural)
- pelose (feminine, plural)
Il tuo cane è talmente peloso che non si riescono a vedere i suoi occhi.
Your dog is so shaggy that you can’t see its eyes.
Some possible synonyms for peloso include irsuto (hairy, hirsute), villoso (hairy, villous), lanuginoso (fuzzy, furry) and lanoso (woolly).
In a figurative sense, this adjective can also be used to describe a person who only pursues his own interests, behaves hypocritically and lacks moral scruples. It is from this figurative meaning that we get the expression fare una carità pelosa, which means to carry out charitable deeds that are, in reality, for one’s own benefit.
A funny proverb in Italian is donna pelosa donna virtuosa which means hairy woman virtuous woman. The suggestion is that hairy women are virtuous because they care for more than just external beauty.
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.
