Word of the Day

Vittoria (Vit-toh-ree-ah) is one of those words you recognize in all languages. Victory in English, victoire in French, victoria in Spanish, never mind where you come from in the world, its sound and meaning is understood.  The first to use …

Davvero (dahv-vai-roh) means “for real.” It comes from the locution da vero, “which comes from reality,” and began being used in the  early 14th century. It corresponds to other common words in Italian, like veramente, and locutions, like sul serio.  …

I wonder how many people are familiar with the Italian word fervore ( fair-voh-reh), easily recognizable as the English “fervor.” Fervore comes from the Latin fervor-fervoris, which means heat. The old Latin verb from which is derived,  fervere, still exists …

Is there a word more famous than mascherina these days?  Mascherina (mah-skai-ree-nah) in Italian means face mask. In the Bel Paese, mascherine are ubiquitous and people got largely used to wearing them. Surgical blue or fantasy cotton, you see them …

Ti voglio bene (tee voh-llioh bai-nai) is the sweetest of Italian expressions. Unlike its more theatrical sister, ti amo, “ti voglio bene” tends to be more subtle but also more authentic.  When you say “ ti voglio bene,” you’re usually …

Allegria! (Ahl-lai-gree-ah) means fun, gaiety, cheerfulness. Italians are known to be gente allegra, cheerful people, and it shows especially in hard times such as these.  The history of the word is somehow uncommon — or at least it is, when  …

If you don’t know how to use it, you don’t know how to translate it. There is a lot of truth in these words, especially for terms like figurati (fee-goo-rah-tee), whose actual meaning has nothing to do with its etymology and …

If you translate literally non vedo l’ora (noh-n vai-doh l’oh-rah), it doesn’t make much sense. What could “not being able to see the time” possibly mean? Well, we don’t use it with that meaning, really.  Non vedo l’ora is the …

We all use it, but where does it come from, really? And how should we translate it into English? These are the two, most pressing questions associated with our expression of the day, alla faccia (ahl-la fah-tcha). According to our …

If there is one thing people have been showing these days, that’d be coraggio (coh-rah-djoh). Its meaning is simple, because the Italian sounds and looks a lot like the English courage, which is exactly what it means.  Coraggio comes from …