Becoming Italian Word by Word

When Hands Talk in the Italian Language

 
mano
hand

Italians do a lot more than speak with their hands (mani).  Like people everywhere, they may clasp their hands in prayer (a mani giunte), clap their hands (batter le mani), give a hand (dare un mano), hold hands (darsi la mano), end up empty-handed (a mani vuote), offer a handshake (stretta di mano) or twiddle their thumbs (stare con le mani in mano).  At times they may want to throw up their hands (mettersi le mani nei capelli, literally put their hands in their hair in despair or shock) or wash their hands (lavarsene le mani) of a frustrating situation.

Italians also may have le mani legate (their hands tied), le mani bucate (literally holes in their hands so they let money slip through their fingers),  or le mani lunghe (long hands or far-reaching influence). Someone with a finger in every pie has le mani in pasta. Mani pulite (clean hands) became famous as the name of a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in the 1990s. But politicians continue to sporcarsi le mani  (dirty the hands or be corrupted) by doing things sottomano (under hand, or on the sly--although the word can also mean "within reach").

A thief who is lesto di mano (light-fingered) may fare man bassa  (make  a low hand, or steal) but runs the risk of being caught con le mani nel sacco (with hands in the sack, or red-handed).  In anger some people may venire alle mani (come to blows).  Afterwards they may feel like kicking themselves (mordersi le mani, or bite one’s hands) in regret.

If you’re cordial and affable, you may be complimented for being  alla mano (at the hand). If you make good or lucky choices, you have la mano felice (the happy hand); if you're talented and creative,  yours are le mani d’oro (hands of gold).   I confess to having butterfingers (called mani di ricotta or mani di pastafrolla,  hands of cheese or hands of short pastry).

In Italian you can come to the rescue (dar manforte, or give strong hand), exaggerate or push too hard (forzare la mano) or take steps to prevent future misunderstandings (mettere le mani avanti, put one’s hands forward). In tough times you may need to be courageous (prendere il coraggio a due mani, take courage in both hands), even if you don’t know where to begin (non sapere dove metter le mani, not know where to put your hands). 

If you are absolutely sure of something, you would metterci la mano sul fuoco, (put your hand in the fire) to swear your allegiance. What may be most important is toccare con mano  (to touch with one’s hand, or see for yourself), prendere in mano la situazione (take charge of the situation) and speak col cuore in mano  (heart in hand, sincerely). Then you're likely to vincere a mani basse (win hands down) and, as the ancient Roman hand above seems to be indicating, become number-one.

Words and Expressions

dare l’ultima mano -- give the last hand (finishing touch)
una mano lava l’altra -- one hand washes the other 
fuori mano -- out of the way, far, distant
perdere la mano --– lose one’s touch
sfuggire di mano -- slip through one’s figners
chiedere la mano di una donna -- to ask for a woman’s hand

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

Hear Puccini’s lilting ode to Mimi’s cold little hand in La Boheme by clicking below:
“Che gelida manina” (from Boheme) by Pavarotti

Beauty Secrets in the Italian Language

il trucco

trick, make-up

Trucco does double-duty in the Italian language as the word for both trick and make-up. Fortunately, the art and artifice of female beauty have come a long way since the days of the Roman empire. Then as now, women wanted long lashes, alluring eyes, and full lips--and were willing to do almost anything to get them. 

The early equivalent of mascara was a stick of coal, carefully applied by a specially trained slave. As Alberto Angela reports in A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome, other products used to bring out the eyes included kohl, squid ink, lamp-black (made from roasted dates), and a paste consisting of the ground-up bodies of toasted ants. 

Lip colors come in a variety of shades, but the most popular was bright red. Unfortunately, its main ingredients—minium (red lead) and cinnabar (red mercuric sulfide)—were highly toxic. 

Beauty masks and skin treatments addressed a variety of cosmetic issues. Bull bile was used for facial “stains”; cow placentas for skin ulcers; butter for boils; narcissus bulbs as emollients; cantalope roots and cumin as whiteners; and an extract of calf genitals for dermatitis. 

To hide wrinkles, women would coat their faces with a mixture of honey and cerise, a white pigment that makes skin more luminous. For a more youthful pink, they would add some red pigments. Rather than blush, they rubbed their cheeks with hermatic powder. Those who could afford it powdered the tips of their breasts with gold. 

If you are in Rome and want to truccarsi (put on make-up) as modern Roman women do, here are some essential vocabulary words: 

• l’ombretto -- eye shadow 

• il rimmel -- mascara 

• il rossetto -- lipstick 

• il fondotinta -- foundation 

• il correttore -- concealer 

• il fard -- blush 

• la terra abbronzante -- shimmering bronzer 

• la cipria -- face powder 

• la matita per occhi -- eye pencil 

• la matita per labbra -- lip liner 

• il lucidalabbra -- lip gloss 

• la pinzetta -- tweezers 

• un pennello per il fard -- a make-up brush 

• uno smalto per unghie -- nail polish. 

 At un salone di bellezza (the beauty salon), una estetista or una visagista (a cosmetologist) offers a variety of services, including a manicure (farsi le unghie, literally to make or do the nails), a pedicure (farsi le unghie dei piedi), a facial (una pulizia del viso), and eyebrow waxing (ceretta alle sopracciglia). 

The make-up rituals of the women of ancient Rome may sound tortuous to us, but they don’t compare with a modern form of barbarism: the bikini wax (la ceretta nella zona bikini). 

Words and Expressions 

avere il trucco pesante -- to wear thick or heavy make-up 

truccatore -- make-up artist 

struccarsi -- to remove make-up (with a struccante or make-up remover) 

applicare lo smalto colorato per unghie -- to apply colored polish or polish the nails 

manicure/pedicure alla francese -- French mani/pedi 

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

For a sweet ode to two things women love--lipstick and chocolate--click below:

A Bad Hair Day in the Italian Language

i capelli (delle donne) 

women’s hair 

A bad hair day (una giornata storta) is nothing new. Regardless of whether their hair (i capelli) is curly (ricci), red (rossi), dark (scuri), brown (castani), or blond (biondi), women have always obsessed about it. According to Alberto Angela, author of A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome, women’s hair styles were not just fashion statements in imperial Rome but indications of their husbands’ power and their own prestige. 

Octavia, sister of the Emperor Augustus, inspired the “Octavia look,” with a little curl in the middle of the forehead, wavy hair around the temples, and a braid that ran around the top of the head in the form of a crest until coming together into a bun at the back of the neck. 

Many fashionable women would don a wig (parrucca). Made of real hair, red and blond wigs came from Germany; black ones, from the Middle East and India. 

Styles became so exaggerated that women stacked hairpieces on top of one another—“like the rows of seats in a theater,” says Angela—to create an enormous fountain of curls. Often the shorter the woman, the more monumental her hairdo was. (Mine would have been a veritable tower.) 

Women’s “big hair” reached unprecedented heights at the peak of the Roman Empire under Trajan in 115 A.D. Wanting to wear their hair “alla Plotina” (like the emperor’s wife Plotina), women created a vertical fan of hair running from one ear to the other. Little curls dangled like earrings at either end. Some women, according to Angela, looked like they were “wearing the back of a chair on their head.” 

Modern Italian women favor simpler styles, although many are impeccably groomed and never seem to have a hair out of place (non avere un capello fuori posto). If you’re a woman and spend enough time in Italy, sooner or later you'll need una parrucchiere di fiducia (a hairdresser you can trust) to cut (tagliare), dye (tingere), bleach (schiarire), highlight (fare i colpi di sole), layer (fare un taglio scalato), or style (fare una messa in piega) your hair. 

 Once the parrucchiere takes comb (pettine) and scissors (forbici) in hand, pay attention. You might want to give directions, such as: 

     *solo una spuntatina -- just a trim 

     *più lunghi qui -- longer here 

     *più corti qui -- shorter here 

     *mi tagli la frangia qui -- cut my bangs here 

     *porti la riga a destra -- part it on the right 

If you're pleased with the results, say, “Mi sta bene.” (It suits me). You also can ask for advice with problems such as la forfora (dandruff) and le doppie punte (split ends). 

If you have capelli that is grassi (greasy), secchi (dry), or crespi (frizzy), you may feel like mettersi le mani nei capelli (putting your hands in your hair in frustration).  Whenever you’re fed up with something, you may averne fin sopra i capelli (have it up to one’s hair) and become so furious that you have un diavolo per capello (a devil for hair). 

That might be enough to far rizzare i capelli (make one’s hair stand on end). 

Words and Expressions 

pettinarsi -- to comb one’s hair 

spazzolarsi i capelli -- to brush one’s hair 

capellone -- long-haired person, hippie 

dare una spuntata/spuntatina ai capelli -- to have one’s hair trimmed 

spaccare un capello in quattro -– to split one’s hair in fours, to  split hairs 

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

Sometimes the only solution for any brutta giornata, as the delightful song below advises, is "lo shampoo":

A Hairy Subject in the Italian Language

 

i capelli (degli uomini) 

hair (men’s) 

Italian men have always wanted to look their best (apparire al meglio). The manly men of ancient Rome were clean-shaven and neatly coiffed—no easy feats in those days.

According to Alberto Angela’s fascinating book, A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome, rich Romans had slaves who served as in-house barbers. Using only water and a razor (rasoio) of bronze or tempered iron shaped like a half moon, il barbiere would shave his master’s beard (barba) every morning. If this weren’t torture enough, he would then use tweezers to pluck out, one by one, every superfluous hair around the eyebrows and on the neck.

Some men used organic-base body waxes. According to the historian Suetonius Julius Caesar underwent depilatory treatments, and the emperor Augustus rubbed scalding-hot walnut shells  on his legs to grow softer hair.

When they shave themselves (farsi la barba or radersi), modern Italian men can enjoy the advantages of shaving cream (crema da barba)  and aftershave (dopobarba). Some prefer to go to un barbiere di fiducia (a trusted barber), who advises them on whether they would look better with regular sideburns (le basette) or longer ones (i basettoni). Many opt for un pizzetto (literally a little piece, or goatee). 

“Barba” appears in places other than on a man’s face. Some jokes have been around so long that they have grown una barba lunga (a long beard).  Anything boring can far venire la barba (make a beard grow). 

Farla in barba a qualcuno (to do it at someone’s beard) means succeeding despite determined opposition or playing a trick on somebody. Servire qualcuno di barba e capelli (literally to serve someone of beard and hair) translates as giving someone what’s coming to him or his comeuppance.

As they became vecchie barbe (old beards), Rome’s rich and powerful men worried more about the hair on their heads than on their faces. If it turned gray, they would dye (tingere) it. If their hair line started to recede, they tried various lotions that promised miraculous regrowth. 

When that didn’t work, many men tried a timeless trick: a comb-over. Julius Caesar (above) combed his hair from back to front to cover his balding pate.

Men who went completely pelato or calvo (bald), sometimes resorted to coloring the skin on their head with lamp-black, Angela reports, to give the impression of black hair from a distance (the length of the Coliseum, perhaps). Others covered  una testa pelata (a bald head) with a parrucchino (toupee or hairpiece). 

Over the centuries Italian men began shaving their heads in the summer months—a custom that fascinated the writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) who enjoyed spending time in Italy and tried in vain to master the language. Emulating the Italians, the writer with the trademark mane of white hair became una testa rasata (a shaved head). His Italian showed no noticeable improvement. 

Words and Expressions 

Barbablù -– Bluebeard

che barba! -- what a bore!

barbone -- hobo, homeless guy   

barboso -- boring, tedious

sbarbatello -- a pimply adolescent, youthful or inexperienced person

For a delightful ode to i capelli  by a man who says that, without hair, he would be like perfume without a bottle or a door without a handle, click below: