Have you ever wondered what the word is in Italian for the liquid our eyes produce when we cry? The answer is lacrima, which should be fairly easy to remember if you are already familiar with the English term lachrymal, an adjective that means “related to weeping or tears.”
lacrima
tear
The plural of lacrima is lacrime. This is the word you’ll hear more frequently since we rarely produce just one tear when we cry. It is a feminine noun that takes the following definite and indefinite articles:
- la lacrima = the tear
- le lacrime = the tears
- una lacrima = a tear
- delle lacrime = some tears
There are two possible verbs for translating to shed tears in Italian: spargere lacrime and versare lacrime. These days, when people asciugano le lacrime (dry their tears), they typically reach for un fazzoletto di carta (a tissue/Kleenex), but in the past, it was more common to use un fazzoletto di stoffa (a handkerchief). I still remember my grandfather’s tasche (pockets) overflowing with them! My young son, however, prefers a far less conventional approach—his manica (sleeve), much to my chagrin!
Le lacrime le scesero lungo il volto.
Tears fell down her face.
When someone receives devastating news or is overwhelmed by emotion, they may scoppiare in lacrime—the Italian phrase for bursting into tears. Another common expression is essere in lacrime, which translates literally as to be in tears.
Quando ha sentito la brutta notizia, è scoppiato in lacrime.
When he heard the bad news, he burst into tears.
Lacrima is, of course, etymologically linked to the verb lacrimare (or the less common lagrimare), meaning to water (as in when one’s eyes water) or to weep.
There isn’t a single word for tearless in Italian. Instead, you need to say senza lacrime (without tears) or senza versare una lacrima (without shedding a tear).
In English, we use the expression crocodile tears to describe tears of sorrow that are insincere, and luckily for us, the same expression exists in Italian: lacrime di coccodrillo.
By extension, lacrima may also be used as a synonym for goccia (drop), though this usage isn’t very common.
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.
