Becoming Italian Word by Word

Italian Terms of Endearment

 

 

Vezzeggiativo 

Pet name, endearment 

According to Italian tradition, a first son was named after the father's father; a second, after the mother's father; a first daughter, after the father's mother; a second daughter, after the mother's mother; and other children after patron saints or other relatives. 

When families were large and most relatives lived in the same village, there were a lot of Maria’s and Mario’s in a neighborhood. And so Italians used pet names (vezzeggiativi) or nicknames (soprannomi) to distinguish among them. 

Some are simply diminuitivi, shorter forms of a given name, such as Vale for Valentina, Lele for Raffaele, Eli for Elisabetta, Tere for Teresa, Giachi for Giacomo,  Pippo for Filippo or Cri for Cristina. In some regions Italians shorten names and add an accent on the final vowel to create an endearment used among friends and family: Valentina becomes Valentì, Valeria  Valè, Alessandro Alessà, SilvanaSilvà, Roberto Robè. An alternative is to add a "y" instead of an accent to an abbreviated name, as in  Silvy, Roby, Francy, Lucy, Dany, Gabry and Maddy. 

Other endings, either in Italian or a dialect, transform a straightforward English name like Mary Ann into Marianna, Mariannina, Mariannedda, Mariannuzza and Mariannedduzza. Here are  other variations on common Italian names: 

*Giuseppe: Peppino, Beppe, Peppe, Peppuccio 

*Giuseppina: Giusi, Pina, Pinetta  

*Antonio: Tonino, Totò
 

*Stella: Stelluccia, Stellina 

*Renzo: Renzetto, Renzuccio, Renzino 

*Francesco: Checco, Cecco, Chicco 

*Giovanni: Gio', Vanni, Vannino, Vanin , Nanni 

*Giovanna: Nina, Vanna, Vanni 

*Roberto: Robi , Roby, Bobo. 

The Italian town of Chiogia near Venice, which has 8,000 Boscolos and 5,000 Tiozzos among its 52,000 citizens, recently won court approval to use vezzeggiativi e soprannomi on all legal documents.  These include names that may not sound endearing but are used with great affection.

A skinny guy might become Grissino (Breadstick), Stecchino or Stuzzicadenti (Toothpick) or Stangone (Beanpole). A heavy fellow may be called Ciccione (Fatty), Palletto (Little Belly), Panzone or Pallone (Big Belly). or Botte (barrel). Dialect softens the sting of terms like Piezzuocchie (One-eyed), Nasecano (Dog Nose), Scugnato (Toothless) and Stuorto (Crooked). 

Behavior or personality often inspire children's pet names, such as Saglienne (Climber) or Chiacchere (Chatterbox). A strong little boy may be called Ercolino (Little Hercules). When we were staying in Italy during my husband’s sabbatical, our young daughter earned a pet name of her own: Coccolona (Cuddly One).

My friend and blog consultant Valentina was such an active little girl that her parents called her Capretta (Little Goat). More recently her love for coffee inspird another nickname: Moka (for the Italian stove-top espresso maker). She calls her adorable son Julian (above) by a string of sobriquets, including Topolino (Little Mouse) and Polliciccio, a combination of the Italian for Tom Thumb and Ciccio, itself a common endearment.

Words and Expressions: 

Fiorello -- Little Flower, for New York City’s former Mayor La Guardia. 

La Cicciolina -- literally “cuddly,” the stage name for Anna Elena Staller, a Hungarian-born Italian politician, porn-star and singer 

Lucianone -- affectionate name for “Big Luciano” Pavarotti  

Dianne Hales is the author of La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language. 

Click below to listen to a famous song, Vattene Amore, which uses a  cute pet name for an innamorato (loved one):  trottolino amoroso (beloved little spinning top--something a restless child might also be called).

Nicknames in the Italian Language

 

 

Soprannomi 

Nicknames 

“Tutti hanno un nome.” Italians say. (Everyone has a name.) But in Italy many people and places also have soprannomi (literally "above the name") or nomignoli (nicknames). 

Locals call Rome’s Spanish Steps La Scalinata (from scala, for stairs), St. Peter’s  Il Cupolone (the Big Dome) and the national Senate La Madama (for the Palazzo Madama). Venice has been dubbed La Serenissima (the most serene one) and Genoa La Superba (the arrogant one). Bologna goes by three nicknames: La Dotta (the learned one, for its ancient university), La Grassa (the fat one, for its rich cuisine) and La Rossa (the red one, for its left-wing politics). 

The Roman Emperor Gaio Giulio Cesare Germanico has gone down in history as Caligula, from the word for the shoes that legionaries used to wear. Nero is always Nerone (Big Nero) in Italian. Attila the King of the Huns (il re degli Unni) was feared as “Flagello di Dio” (the scourge of God) for his cruelty. Lorenzo de’ Medici (above), the magnificent and magnanimous patron of Renaissance artists in Florence, was hailed as Il Magnifico. 

Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italy’s George Washington, earned the nickname of “l’eroe dei due mondi” (hero of two worlds) for his military campaigns in South America as well as Italy. Much more recently Tommaso Buscetta, a famous Mafioso, was dubbed “Il boss dei due mondi” (the boss of two worlds). Mussolini was known as Il Duce (the leader). Journalists refer to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as il Cavaliere (the Knight). 

We know the artist Alessandro di Mariano dei Filipepi as “Botticelli” (little barrels) because his family were barrel-makers. Jacopo Comin, son of a dyer, was called “Tintoretto” but the blazing energy of his works inspired the nickname Il Furioso. Michelangelo, the master of masters, had two nicknames: La Terribilita for his fierce temperament and Il Divino for his divine talent. 

To many Italians Frank Sinatra will always be La Voce (the Voice) and Maria Callas La Divina (the divine one). Papa Giovanni XXIII (Pope John the 23rd) is remembered as “il Papa buono” (the good Pope). A newspaper headline, neatly summing up the misadventures of Britney Spears, dubbed her “La Scandalosa.” 

Nicknames such as Suararo (Corkmaker), Gravunari (Coal Miner) and  Cucchieriello (Coachman) came from occupations, some now obsolete, that were handed down from generation to generation. A notorious 19th-century bandit of Emilia-Romagna, who terrorized travelers and townspeople for decades, was called Il Passatore, the Ferryman, for his father’s profession. 

Other nicknames are based on appearance. An ugly woman may be known as Befana (the Epiphany witch). A short woman (like myself) could become Tappo (cork), Nana (dwarf) or Gnoma (gnome). If she marries, as I did, a tall man (who might be nicknamed Vatusso from the extremely tall Watusi of Africa), they form an “il” (the combination of a little i and a tall l that translates into “the”). 

Some nicknames come from the Bible. An unfortunate soul is a povero Cristo (poor Christ); a traitor, a Giuda (Judas); and a very old person, a Matusalemme (from long-living Methuselah). 

Geography inspires other epithets. Southern Italians deride Northerners as “polentoni” (big polenta eaters) because that food once sustained the population. Northerners fire back with "terroni" (big dirt guys), a reference to the peasants of the South. 

“Yanks” used to be the most common nickname for Americans. In recent years it’s been replaced, unfortunately, by the all-too-apt culoni (big butts). 

Words and Expressions 

essere soprannominato  -- to be nicknamed 

etichettare qualcuno come… –- to label someone as… 

cicerone -- a tour guide, from the Roman writer Cicero 

“(name) di nome e di fatto” -- someone who has a name that perfectly reflects a personality trait or physical characteristic. A very fair-skinned woman named Bianca (white) would be “Bianca di nome e di fatto.”

Click below to listen to Lucia, the heroine of Puccini’s La Boheme, explain why everyone uses her nickname in “Mi chiamano Mimi” (They Call Me Mimi): 

Dianne Hales is the author of La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language. 

How the Months Got Their Names in the Italian Language

 

i mesi 

the months 

The original Roman year had ten named months, beginning with Martius, named for Mars, god of war. This was the month when the mighty Roman legions resumed their battles to conquer and rule the known world. It was also the time when farmers began working the fields and preparing for planting. 

The other months were: 

*Aprilis (April), dedicated to the love goddess Aphrodite (Venus) 

*Maius (May), for Maia, the goddess of new plantings (who also gave her name to il maiale, Italian for pig) 

*Junius (June), the month of Juno, the king of gods

*Quintilis (July), the fifth month, renamed luglio in honor of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. 

*Sextilis (August), the sixth month, which Augustus claimed as his own in 8 B.C. 

*Septem (September), the seventh month 

*Octo (October), the eighth month 

*Novem (November), the ninth month 

*Decem (December), the tenth month

There were two unnamed months in the dead of winter when not much happened. Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome circa 700 BC, added the two months Januarius (January), dedicated to Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings and endings, and Februarius (February), named after Februalia, a time of sacrifices to atone for sins. He also moved the beginning of the year from Martius to Januarius.

After Februarius there was occasionally an additional month of Intercalaris (intercalendar). In 46 BC, Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar (replacing it with the Julian calendar), changed the number of days in many months, and eliminated Intercalaris. In its stead February gets an extra day during an anno bisestile (leap year). 

You can learn the month sof the year the way Italian school children do: by memorizing this “filastrocca dei mesi dell’anno” (nursery rhyme of the months of the year): 

gennaio freddoloso 
(January cold) 

febbraio spiritoso 
 (February funny or hilarious--a reference to Carnevale) 

marzo pazzerello 
(March crazy) 

aprile mite e bello (April mild and beautiful) 


maggio sognatore (May the dreamer) 


giugno cantatore (June the singer) 

luglio nuotatore 
(July the swimmer) 

agosto gran signore (August the great signore) 

settembre grappolaio 
(September brings the grapes) 

ottobre castagnaio (October brings the chestnuts) 


novembre triste e stanco (November sad and tired) 


dicembre tutto bianco (December all white) 

Words and Expressions 

arrivare a fine mese -- make it to the end of the month 

Quanti ne abbiamo del mese? -– literally, how much of the month do we have? What day of the month is it? 

Ii mese scorso --last month 

il mese prossimo -- next month 

“30 giorni ha novembre con april, giugno e settembre 

di 28 ce n’è uno, tutti gli altri fan trentuno” –- 

“30 days has November, April, June and September

One has 28 of them; all the others 31.” 

Click here to listen to an Italian ode to the months of the year. Let me know if you'd like a copy of the lyrics (in Italian):

A Grain of Truth in the Italian Language

 

il farro 

the grain farro

“Pharoah?” I asked an Italian friend when I first heard the word. “You mean like King Tut?” 

She shook her head in disbelief. How could I not know farro (pronounced FAHR-ro) after so much time and so many meals in Italy? 

 As  she explained, farro is not just un cereale (a grain) but the mother of all grains, including rice, barley, wheat and rye. Wild farro, also called emmer, has been traced back to 17,000 B.C.; domestic varieties, to 7700 B.C. References to the plant appear in ancient Hebrew, Greek and Latin sources. 

A staple in Egypt and other Mediterranean civilizations, farro fed the Roman legions during their conquest of the known world. Ground into a paste and cooked into a polenta called plus, it sustained Rome's poor for centuries. 

Farro fell out of favor because the grain is difficult to grow and yields are often low. However, in recent decades French and Italian chefs in top-ranked restaurants began using it in hearty vegetable soups and other dishes. Rich in fiber, protein and B vitamins, farro provides health benefits that have made it increasingly popular worldwide. 

Farro's unique flavor, a cross between barley and wheat, makes a delicious hot soup when cooked in broth. You can drain it like pasta and toss it with roasted vegetables and perfectly salty ricotta salata cheese for a delicious salad. It is also terrific in farrotto, a traditional farro risotto. (You can find recipes from Executive Chef Gianluca Guglielmi of A.G. Ferrari at my website.) 

Italian grains give us something to chew about in other ways. Everyone, for instance, needs un grano di buon senso (a grain of common sense)—or at least un granello (a little grain or kernel). Piantare una grana (literally to plant a grain) means to make trouble or stir up a a fuss, while the troublemaker or nitpicker is called a piantagrane. If you try to pass off someone else’s work as your own, an Italian might protest, "Non è farina del tuo sacco" (This is not flour from your sack.) 

In English “dough” is slang for money; in Italian, you’d say la grana. You may have un sacco di grana (a sack of grain, or a lot of dough) or un sacco di grane(lots of troubles), depending on the gender.  “Fuori la grana!” (out with the grain) is the classic shout of a bank robber who wants the teller to turn over the dough.

Like wheat, farro can be made into farina (flour). But watch out for la farina del diavolo (the devil’s flour), which refers to anything acquired dishonestly. As an old Italian proverb reminds us, la farina del diavolo va tutto in crusca (the devil’s flour becomes all bran). In other words, nothing good comes from ill-gotten gains  -- or grains. 

Words and Expressions 

battere il grano -- to thresh grain 

granaio -- barn 

granelli di polvere -- dust specks 

sgranare -- to shell or remove from the pod 

Chi va ai al mulino s'infarina -- who goes to the mill gets flour on himself. 

 If you live in the San Francisco Bay area, please come to a presentation on “The Tastes and Sounds of Romance, Italian Style,” in collaboration with A.G.Ferrari Foods, at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 14, at the Museo Italo-Americano at Fort Mason in San Francisco.

The Heights of Fashion in the Italian Language

 

tacchi alti

high heels

Long before I spoke Italian, I was fluent in the language of Italian shoes. Over the years I’ve heard some tall tales about their history, but my favorite is the story of an invention for which I, like other height-challenged women, remain forever grateful:  high heels (tacchi alti).

In the Renaissance the ladies of  noble households  vied to parade the longest trains, the fullest skirts, and the most extravagant silks, brocades, and velvets.  Under strict  “sumptuary” laws designed to restrict excessive displays of finery, city-states worked out formulas limiting how much fabric a dress could contain. The taller the woman, the wider and longer her gown could be.  And so women looked for ways to enhance their height.

Some say Leonardo da Vinci, that most versatile of geniuses, created the first elevated shoes. Others credit Catherine de’ Medici, the teenage bride who demanded added stature for her wedding to the future king of France in 1533. If a little boost was good, more quickly seemed better. 

With the aid of clever cobblers, women climbed onto wood or cork platforms that lifted them (and their fabulous skirts) as high as twenty inches above ground.  Called zoppieggi or sopei in Venice and calcagnini (from "calcagno," the heel of the foot) in other regions of Italy, these “overshoes” covered a daintier slipper, ostensibly to protect it from mud, dirt, and acqua alta  (high water) as women walked—or, more accurately, hobbled, often with the aid of canes or servants on either side—through the streets. 

 Venetian legislators, alarmed by the risk of falls, particularly to pregnant women, tried to prohibit these “walking footstools.” However,  they remained popular, especially among courtesans, for centuries. A local writer described the “tric trac” sound their wooden soles made when high-stepping women walked so fast “that it seems they have the devil between their legs.” 

A fascinating exhibit, "On a Pedestal: From Renaissance Chopines to Baroque Heels," which runs until September 20 at the Bata Shoe Museum (a shoebox-shaped architectural delight) in Toronto,  includes towering heels directly descended from the Venetian zoppieggi. 

The remarkable collection reminded me of the platform shoes, called  zatterone in Italian, that made a comeback in the 1970s.  I twisted an ankle falling off mine. 

Sayings and Expressions

fare la scarpetta -- to wipe a plate clean with a little piece of bread  (literally to make the little shoe)

fare le scarpe a uno -- to inform on someone (do the shoes to someone)

mettere le scarpe al sole -- to die (put one’s shoes in the sun)

morire con le scarpe ai piede -- to die a violent or sudden death (die with one’s shoes on)

Dianne Hales is author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.