I have heard this phrase in Italian blogs, Instagram accounts etc.., I know a little bit of Italian and couldn't co-relate this to anything. My hunch is that it means stay beautiful (or well). Does the baell come from Neapolitan or some other dialect? In what circumstance is this phrase used?
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1Could you point to some example usages of the phrase? It's hard to recognize a sentence from the mixed recollections of a non-speaker.– Denis Nardin ♦Commented Mar 22, 2016 at 20:13
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2I have heard sometimes “stay in bell” as a jokingly literal translation of “stai in campana”, which is slang for “stai attento/a”, meaning “be careful / watch out”. I don't know the reason for this slang expression, though.– Walter TrossCommented Mar 22, 2016 at 21:19
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Here you go baellsquaddoingthings.tumblr.com , twitter.com/search?q=%23baell– Bharath BhandarkarCommented Mar 23, 2016 at 3:23
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1blitzquotidiano.it/foto-notizie/…– egreg ♦Commented Mar 23, 2016 at 8:09
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1@egreg you should probably make an answer of that and include the link and a summary of the content– Diego MartinoiaCommented Mar 23, 2016 at 10:07
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1 Answer
It seems to be a new entry in the language of youths. According to http://www.blitzquotidiano.it/foto-notizie/giosada-vince-x-factor-foto-ma-che-vuol-dire-baell-2339679/ this word has been invented by an Italian singer/actor named Giosada as a variant of “bell” (Bari dialect for bello).
The word spread rapidly in the social networks (never heard before, to be honest). So stay baell could mean be nice or variants thereof.
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5+1 but this is horrifying. I know that languages evolves and that we should aim to describe rather than prescribe, but.. ugh...– Denis Nardin ♦Commented Mar 23, 2016 at 13:18
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1@DenisNardin, don't worry it will disappear in the fogs of internet as soon the next meme and trendy characters will appear on the scene... who knows if we are just victims of some expedient to stand out in a tv contest Commented Mar 23, 2016 at 20:17
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1@DaG, ichthyologists have no control over the subject of their study, and don't use fish to communicate Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 0:22
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1@DaG From the scientists I know they are more likely to exchange pictures of them with captions commenting how cute they are. Nevertheless I'm sorry if this reaction is inappropriate, but I really don't want a language learner to get the impression that this expression is in any way close to standard Italian...– Denis Nardin ♦Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 15:26