Italian Word of the Day: Semaforo (traffic light)

cover image with the word “semaforo” and a traffic light in the background

Semaforo, also known as a semaforo stradale, is the word for a traffic light in Italian. It is from the French ‘sémaphore’, which was formed irregularly from the Greek sēma ‘sign’ and –phoros ‘bearing’. If you feel this word looks familiar, that’s because it shares the same origin as the English word semaphore, a system …

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Italian Word of the Day: Lampione (lamp post / street light)

A lampione is a large glass-covered lamp supported by a column or a support fixed to the wall, used for lighting streets, squares, gardens, and the like. It derives from the word lampa, meaning ‘lightning’ or ‘flash’. Being a masculine noun, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: il lampionethe lamp post un lampionea …

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Italian Word of the Day: Luce (light)

The most widely known translation for the word luce is light in the sense of the natural agent that makes things visible to the eye. Luce is a feminine noun and takes the following articles: la lucethe lightuna lucea light le lucithe lights delle luci(some) lights Just as in English, it can be used to …

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