You may be as surprised to learn as I was that there is a single verb in Italian that means “to wag its tail” in Italian which is scodinzolare.
scodinzolare
to wag one’s tail
Scodinzolare is a regular -are verb, so it can be conjugated in the following manner in the present tense:
(io) scodinzolo
(tu) scodinzoli
(lui) scodinzola
(lei) scodinzola
(Lei) scodinzola
(noi) scodinzoliamo
(voi) scodinzolate
(loro) scodinzolano
As you can see from the following example sentence, there is no need to even mention the coda (tail) of the dog, as it is already contained within the verb (codinzolo is the diminutive of coda).
Il cane scodinzola perché è tornato il suo padrone.
The dog is wagging its tail because its master came back.
As with many verbs, there is a figurative meaning to accompany the literal meaning. Because dogs are often seen as subservient to their masters, the verb has also assumed the meaning of “to kowtow” or “to grovel” when used in reference to people.
Tutti scodinzolano dietro al capo.
Everyone kowtows to the boss.
In a humorous sense, it can also mean “to walk with a wiggle” especially when talking about women.
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.
