A wonderful Italian word I love throwing into conversation at every opportunity is intramontabile (plural: intramontabili) which is an adjective meaning timeless, everlasting, enduring, immortal or evergreen. Note that the e/i ending (singular/plural) doesn’t change according to the gender of the noun.
It derives from the verb tramontare meaning to set (as in the setting of the sun). The prefix in- denotes negation in this case, so the literal translation would be “un-set-able”. (Obviously this word doesn’t exist in English but you get the idea!)
It is used to describe people or things that either don’t change with time, retaining their good qualities, or don’t fall out of fashion. A few good examples include:
- canzone intramontabile = timeless song
- attore intramontabile = evergreen actor
- fama intramontabile = everlasting fame
- arte intramontabile = timeless art
- atmosfera intramontabile = timeless atmosphere
Yesterday dei Beatles è una canzone intramontabile.
Yesterday by the Beatles is a timeless song.
It can also be used in a humorous way to suggest that someone has been around forever and despite the passage of time, never seems to change.
È proprio intramontabile quella cantante!
That singer really is ageless!
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.
