Perhaps it’s due to the heat, or the fact that I’ve hardly had a moment to breathe this entire summer between il lavoro (work), prendermi cura (taking care) of my son, and trying to find time to mantenermi in forma (keep fit), but lately I’ve been feeling more listless than usual and less enthusiastic about the things I normally enjoy. To describe this feeling, there is one adjective that ticks all the boxes: svogliato.
svogliato
listless / unmotivated / unenthusiastic
As you’ve probably guessed, svogliato is an adjective and its gender and number needs to change in accordance with the thing it describes.
- svogliato = masculine, singular
- svogliata = feminine, singular
- svogliati = masculine, plural
- svogliate = feminine, plural
To understand the underlying meaning of svogliato, we first need to understand its component parts. At its core is the noun voglia, which can be translated as will, desire, or want depending on the context. You’ll often hear Italians say Ho voglia di… as a translation for “I want to…” or conversely, Non ho voglia di… for “I don’t want to…” In this case, the literal translation would be something along the lines of “I have / I don’t have the will or desire to…”
The s- here is a prefix that can give the sense of removing or lacking something in Italian. So, if we lack the will, desire or motivation to do something, we can described ourselves as lazy, unenthusiastic, and unmotivated. Svogliato captures all these emotions in one word.
Ti vedo proprio svogliato oggi. Cosa ti succede?
You seem really listless today. What’s going on with you?
As is the case with many adjectives in Italian, you can also use svogliato as a noun to describe a person with the aforementioned characteristics. In English, we might use terms such as slacker, or listless/lazy person. Don’t forget that the articles for a male are lo (the) and uno (a) because svogliato starts with s + consonant!
Sei uno svogliato e il tuo amico idem!
You’re a slacker, and your friend is too!
Related to svogliato is the verb svogliare, which means “to deprive someone of the desire to do something,” but it isn’t used very much at all in everyday speech. You might also encounter the adverb svogliatamente (listlessly) and the noun svogliatezza (listlessness / apathy).
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.
