In every aspect of life, there are inevitably winners and losers. The word for the former is vincitore, whereas the latter is our word of the day: perdente.
Perdente is a noun that can be either masculine or feminine. The plural form for both genders is perdenti with an -i on the end. The only way to ascertain the subject is to pay close attention to the accompanying definite and indefinite articles.
un / il perdente
(male)
una / la perdente
(female)
i / dei perdenti
(male)
le / delle perdenti
(female)
As in English, it can denote a person who loses a contest, game, match or any other kind of competition, or more broadly, someone who fails frequently or is unsuccessful in life.
Il perdente ha richiesto una rivincita.
The loser requested a rematch.
Mi dispiace dirtelo, ma sei e sarai sempre un perdente!
I’m sorry to tell you this, but you are and always will be a loser!
Another popular, more colloquial term in Italian for someone who generally “loses in life” is sfigato/a. It also means unlucky. Another synonym is fallito which means unsuccessful or failed. It can be more offensive than sfigato.
Perdente can also be an adjective, in which case it translates as losing. For example, the losing number would be il numero perdente whereas the losing card would be la carta perdente.
La squadra perdente è uscita dal campo sotto i fischi del pubblico.
The losing team walked off the field to the boos of the spectators.
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.
