Do you know someone who sits around all day doing nothing? Then you could call him or her a perdigiorno in Italian!
Perdigiorno, which is an invariable noun made up of the words perdere (to lose / to miss / to waste) and giorno (day), is used to describe both men and women who avoid work and effort. It literally means “day-waster”.
Here are the definite and indefinite articles you can use with this noun. Because it is invariable, the ending of perdigiorno never changes.
- il perdigiorno = the slacker (male)
- la perdigiorno = the slacker (female)
- i perdigiorno = the slackers (males or mixed group)
- le perdigiorno = the slackers (females)
- un perdigiorno = a slacker (male)
- una perdigiorno = a slacker (female)
- (dei) perdigiorno = (some) slackers (males or mixed group)
- (delle) perdigiorno = (some) slackers (females)
The expression fare il perdigiorno means to be a slacker.
Dovresti cercarti un lavoro invece di fare il perdigiorno.
You should find yourself a job instead of being a slacker.
A similar word with the same meaning is perditempo, made of the same verb perdere and the noun tempo (time). A “time-waster” basically!
Other common synonyms you’ll encounter are:
- pigrone = lazy bones, couch potato
- fannullone = lazy bones, good-for-nothing
- scansafatiche = loafer, slacker
- pelandrone = loafer, idler
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.
