The word for an ornament that one fastens to clothing, either for decorative purposes or as a clasp, is spilla in Italian. It translates as either brooch or pin in English.
Being a feminine noun, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles:
la spilla
the brooch
una spilla
a brooch
le spille
the brooches
delle spille
(some) brooches
Some different kinds of spille you might encounter include:
- spilla d’oro = gold brooch
- spilla d’argento = silver brooch
- spilla di diamanti = diamond brooch
- spilla da cravatta = tie pin
- spilla da foulard = scarf pin
Non trovo più la spilla che mi aveva regalato la nonna. Spero di non averla persa!
I can’t find the brooch my grandmother gave me. I hope I didn’t lose it.
A spilla di sicurezza (otherwise known as a spilla da balia, literally “the nanny’s pin”) is the word for a safety pin in Italian. In this particular expression, spilla is sometimes replaced by its masculine counterpart spillo, which is the word for a sewing pin or thumbtack.
High heels are referred to as tacchi a spillo because the long heel is reminiscent of a pin.
The augmentative spillone, on the other hand, is the word for a hat pin.
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.
