Wicked Word of the Week! - Meno Male

meno male
/menoh-maleh/

Expression  -  English - 'thank god, thank goodness'

*Literally, 'meno male' (sometimes written 'menomale') means 'less bad', which doesn't make any sense in this context. However, thank goodness? That doesn't really make sense in English so you can't literally translate them from either language.

"Mamma, ho trovato la mia scarpa." - "Oh meno male!"
               "Mum, I've found my shoe." - "Oh thank goodness!"

Italian Swear Words!

Yeaahh the post you've all been waiting for. One of the first things you can resist asking when you make a friend who speaks another language: "Teach me some swear words!"

*    *    *    NOTICE    *    *    *

Don't read this if you're under like, I don't know, twelve or something. Or if you're weak minded. Or easy offended. Or Jesus. It might/will probably offend you...


Vaffanculo! - Fuck you! Fuck off!  (* Literally, go and take it in your ass.)

The definitions in English might not always be the literal translation, but the equivalent we would use.

cazzo - fuck        
merda - shit   

un bastardo, un figlio di puttana - bastard, a son of a bitch
una brutta, una schifosa, una zoccola - a bitch, skank, slut

il cazzo, la minchia, il pistolino, la fava - a dick/cock/willy (however you fancy it)
la fica, la farfalla*, la gnacchera, la toppa - a pussy/vagina
la farfalla - (* Literally, 'the butterfly'. Ahahahaha)

i coglini, le palle - balls, bollocks
il culo - ass
le poppe, le cioccie, le tette - boobs

un pompino - a blowjob    - (almost my word of the week. It's so ironic, it just sounds like such a nice word.. Haha!)

un pompinaio, un succhiatore, un leccacazzi*, un gustafave - a cocksucker
un leccacazzi - (* Literally, a 'lickdicks'. Amazing.)
testa di merda - shithead

una bella fica, una fica pronta - a (nice) piece of ass

chiavere, trombare, fottere - to fuck
> (ciulare - Milanese, beciare - Genovese, scopare - Italiano)

essere fottuto - to be fucked up
(E' tutti fottuto. - It's all fucked up)

vacagare, vai/va a cagare - to piss off
avere il cazzo in aria - to be pissed off (* Literally something like, 'to have dick in the air')

 affanculo - fuck it all, fuck this shit

That's just some basics, here're some charming phrases:

Non sto in questo merdaio. - I'm not staying in this shithole.

Andate tutti a 'fanculo. - You can all go fuck yourselves.

La tua madre si da per niente. - Your mother gives it away (for nothing).

E' un stronzo. - You're an asshole.

(Most of these were from this website - there's a few more on there if you want to fill your boots.)

Wicked Word of the Week! - Curiosare

curiosare
/kjuriosarei/

Verb  - English - 'to wander/to look around, to poke about'

Example: Curioso nei negozi - I'm wandering/looking around the shops.

(I guess you could look at it like 'curios-' is similar to curious...).

*Note: I have to admit this word of the week isn't so wicked. I was swayed by 'shottino' just because it sounds cool, but then also swayed towards choosing a cool Italian swear word. But then I just thought I'd make a whole post about them because I just couldn't decide which was coolest).

Wicked Word of the Week! - Lecca-Lecca

Ahh I came across an awesome word today, and decided it just had to become a word of the week.

lecca-lecca
/lekka-lekka/

Noun m singular - English - 'lolly, lollipop'

* Literally means lick-lick. How cool is that!?

The Gattara

Gattara
/gatara/

Noun f (plural: gattare) (masculine: gattaro)

1. Person (female) who feeds stray cats.


Whilst I was in Pavia, I was sat in the park on a bench, reading a book. As you do. As I sat down, I saw two cats sat on the wall opposite and didn't think much of it.


Two stray cats sitting on a waaaall.

A few minutes later, I casually looked up again, and there were suddenly 6 cats on the wall.

In the corner of my eye I see an unkempt odd-looking woman clutching a white carrier bag to her chest and walking in my direction from the other side of the park. This woman approaches the now cat-lined wall, looks cautiously from side to side and then climbs over the wall and ducks down behind it. The cats follow suit and disappear from view.

I hear some rustling from behind the wall and although I can't see anything I can tell the woman is tipping out some cat biscuits onto the floor. Five minutes later, the woman discreetly climbs back over the wall, puts an empty mince container into the bin and then scurries away.

When she'd gone, I snuck over to the wall and peered over.

Woah.

There were now over 10 cats behind the wall.

When Giorgio and Dominga finally picked me up, I told Dominga about the cat-feeding woman.
"Ah yes," she said, "She is a gattara. They are women who feed stray cats. They look normally dirty looking, with old or dirty clothes. It's quite odd."

That's amazing. There is actually have a name for these scruffy Italian women who buy a ton of catfood and deliver it to a hoard of patient homeless cats. I mean, don't get me wrong I love cats. But seriously...