The word for a pedantic person who raises questions and objections, and causes difficulties or problems over things of little importance is piantagrane in Italian. Some possible translations in English include troublemaker, fault-finder and nitpicker.
Piantagrane is the combination of the verb piantare (to plant) and the noun grana, which in addition to meaning ‘grain‘ is also a familiar way of saying ‘trouble‘ or ‘hassle‘.
Piantagrane is an invariable noun whose form does not change in the feminine or plural.
il / la piantagrane
the troublemaker
un / una piantagrane
a troublemaker
i / le piantagrane
the troublemakers
dei / delle piantagrane
(some) troublemakers
A closely related idiomatic expression is piantare una grana (lit. to plant a grain), which means to stir up trouble.
Dai, finiscila di fare il piantagrane! Non hai niente di meglio da fare?
Come on, stop being a troublemaker! Don’t you have anything better to do?
Some synonyms for piantagrane include:
- pedante = pedantic
- rompiscatole = pain in the neck (as well as the more vulgar rompiballe and rompicoglioni)
- persona cavillosa = pedantic / small-minded person
- seccatore = pest
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.
