Word of the Day: Guastafeste

We all know a guastafeste. Actually, we may even have been one, sometimes in our lives.

Guastafeste has a relatively straight forward etymology: it is formed by the verb guastare (to spoil, to ruin) and feste the plural of festa (party). So, literally a guastafeste is someone who breaks the mood at a party and, by extension, anyone who does or says something to spoil atmosphere or situations.

Guastafeste is someone who ruins your incredible plans for a weekend spent watching Netflix and eating peanut butter ice cream, by reminding you that your boss anticipated the deadline for that heinous work project to Monday morning, and you still have everything to prepare. Thinking about it, your boss is a guastafeste, too, in this scenario: actually, he — or she — is the biggest of them all!

However, guastafeste is also someone that brings you back to reality when you dream too much: just like that time you decided to move to Paris and live the life of a bohemian painter and your best friend pointed out you can’t speak any French nor have any significant artistic talent: what a guastafeste, eh?

If you are a teenager, anyone reminding you to do your homework instead of chatting online with your friends is a guastafeste, just like the classmate walking into the school yard looking for you while you’re talking to your crush, alone.

The types of guastafeste are many, indeed.

Sometimes, we are our own guastafeste, especially in days when we’d like just to be lazy, but then our sense of responsibility calls us back to duty.

The only people who always manage not to be their own guastafeste are serial procrastinators: no matter how hard their conscience tells them they have to do something, “tomorrow” will always be a better day for it!

In English, guastafeste can be translated in many a way: killjoy, buzzkill, wet blanket are all common . But the expression “bursting my bubble” is also pretty spot on!