la roba
stuff
You can’t blame English speakers for assuming la roba italiana is something soft and cozy you slip into at night. That sort of robe is called una vestaglia or una veste da camera (a gown of the room, or a dressing gown). Although dottori e magistrati (doctors and magistrates) of the Cinquecento (1500s) used to dress in a flowing garment called a robone, today la roba translates into stuff, as in the things that fill our shelves, clog our closets, and clutter up the garage.
My husband Bob and I knew we had committed ourselves to an Italian life when we started leaving la nostra roba there.
“Cos’è quella roba?” (What is that stuff?) a friend asked when she saw the huge sarcophagus, as we call it, in which we store all manner of things: Bob’s golf clubs, my swimming goggles, running shoes, windbreakers, caps, books, shampoo, sunscreen, bug spray, bandages, and other just-in-case supplies. No wonder our friend exclaimed, “Quanta roba!” (“What a lot of stuff!”)
"Non è roba tua!” (It’s not your stuff) I said defensively, meaning that it wasn’t her problem. I never worry about la roba d’altri (other people’s property), because it’s all I can do to keep track of la montagna di roba (the mountain of stuff) that belongs to us. I also recall the commandment: Non desiderare la roba d’altri (Thou shall not covet they neighbor’s goods).
A dictionary from the second half of the 1300s defined la roba as the material things that one possesses or “che serve in genere alle necessità del vivere” (that serve in general the necessity of living). Where would you sleep and sit without roba di casa (furniture)? And all of us have roba di valore (valuable stuff) along with less valuable things -- roba a buon mercato (cheap goods), roba di scarto (rejects, seconds) and roba usata (second-hand stuff) -- that are likely to end up with a robivecchi (junk dealer) or get thrown away as robaccia (rubbish).
Stuff matters -– literally and figuratively. “Un uomo senza roba è come una pecora senza lana,” an Italian proverb states. “A man without wealth is like a sheep without wool.” But listen carefully when Italians bring up “stuff.”
“Che roba!” (How awful!) is a common response to hearing of someone’s misfortune. “Roba da matti!” or “Roba da chiodi!” Italians exclaim when confronted by something strange, or unbelievable. “Non è roba per te“ means it’s not stuff (not fit) for you. You might dismiss something inconsequential as roba da niente or roba da nulla (stuff of nothing).
The sarcastic equivalents of “Big deal!” are "Sai che roba! " (You know what stuff!) and “Bella roba!” (literally fantastic or nice stuff for something that obviously isn't) .
Words and Expressions
Di che roba è fatto? or Che roba è? --What stuff is it made of?
roba da pazzi -- another way of saying crazy stuff
E’ proprio roba sua -- it’s his work
roba di lana -- woolens
roba firmata -- designer clothes
