19
votes
Accepted
Can a text in Latin be understood by an educated Italian who never had any formal teaching of that language?
Interesting question. I'll go out on a limb and say that the answer is no.
Of course it is difficulty to find a definitive, evidence-based answer, but I'll give two reasons, the first more subjective ...
- 37k
15
votes
Accepted
What does "parmi" mean?
Your analysis is correct. The word parmi is indeed a contraction of mi pare, where pare is the third person of parere. So parmi means “it seems to me”, or “it appears to me”.
In your example, parmi ...
- 37k
13
votes
Form of "What?" for hearing loss
Informal: Come? Cosa? Eh? Come/Cosa/Che hai detto?
Formal, (as suggested in a comment by @RiccardoDeContardi): Scusi? Prego? Può ripetere? Come/Cosa/Che ha detto?, the latest two usually followed by ...
- 3,336
12
votes
Accepted
Dava da mangiare: Imperfect past tense of "feed"?
No, the correct translation is:
The farmer fed his horse every day.
or
The farmer gave something to eat to his horse every day
In Italian "dare da mangiare" (lit. "to give [something] to eat") ...
- 12.1k
11
votes
Accepted
"Used to" and "be used to" in Italian
As Gio says in his answer the locution to be used to can be translated as essere solito, or (in my opinion more commonly) using the adverbial locution di solito followed by the verb at the presente ...
- 12.1k
11
votes
Accepted
Is "fuffa" the correct translation for "fluff"?
The translation of fuffa as fluff is correct,
it is the typical unaesthetic fluff (or lanugine in Italian) that forms on cloth and that is generally removed.
Moreover it is not considered a bad ...
- 20.4k
11
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of "n." in Italian dates?
It simply means numero (number) since it is commonly used when you have more than an occurrence of a certain event during the same day.
Think about, for example, an hospital registering newborn ...
- 20.4k
10
votes
Accepted
What is a "utenza fissa"?
It can depend on the context, but the term utenza fissa is often used to denote a landline telephone number, for example see here or here.
Utenza is a generic term that means an account with some ...
- 12.1k
10
votes
Accepted
Come posso rendere "to be on sick leave" in italiano?
Il termine burocratico sarebbe "Assenza per malattia" o "Congedo per malattia"; io tradurrei quindi to be on sick leave con:
Essere (o stare) in congedo per malattia
oppure
Essere (o stare) ...
- 6,997
9
votes
Accepted
Come posso dire a una persona "take your time" in italiano?
Per take your time potresti dire:
fai con calma
prenditi il tuo tempo
prenditi il tempo che ti serve
fai con comodo
Per make youself at home potresti dire:
mettiti comodo
...
- 20.4k
9
votes
Accepted
Qual è una buona traduzione per Buzzword?
Non mi viene in mente una traduzione esatta 1:1, ma nel tuo esempio mi sembra che vada benissimo l'accrescitivo "parolone":
Spero che dietro a tutte quelle parolone lui sappia anche quello che sta ...
- 3,336
9
votes
Accepted
What does "v'ha" mean?
It is[1] a contracted form of Vi ha, itself an archaic form for Vi è, there is. The meaning is
There is a god protector
of [those in] misfortune
Compare, a few lines below, with
più ...
- 12.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Translation of a plague warning
The sentence is in a very formal Italian, with many implicit subordinates that is not easy to translate in English (a language rather uncomfortable with complex syntax). In particular some adjectives ...
- 12.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Meaning of 'gobbo' / 'gobbi'
In some parts of Italy gobbi, regardless of its literal meaning, is used by supporters of other football teams to derogatorily refer to supporters (and occasionally players) of Juventus.
So, yes, ...
- 37k
9
votes
Qual è una traduzione di "OP"?
Alla lettera direi "autore originale". Da una ricerca su Google, questo è anche l'uso diffuso, anche se non sono riuscito a trovare una fonte abbastanza autorevole, e non so se TripAdvisor o Plreply ...
- 2,238
9
votes
Accepted
What's the Italian equivalent for "hiring managers"?
A good translation could be responsabili delle assunzioni or responsabili della selezione.
More extensively you could also use the expression responsabili della ricerca e selezione del personale ...
- 20.4k
9
votes
Is "fuffa" the correct translation for "fluff"?
@abarisone gave you a good answer (though I never heard the word fuffarolo, maybe it’s regional). I want to add that fuffa is not a bad word and you can use it in any context (of course if you told ...
- 313
8
votes
Accepted
Double meaning of "traduttore, traditore"
The so-called pun lies simply in the fact that traduttore and traditore are very similar words, differing just for a vowel (u/i) and a double letter that becomes simple (tt/t). That is, there is no ...
- 37k
8
votes
8
votes
Traduzione della frase inglese "To make a big deal (out of something)"
Solitamente "Don't make a big deal" si può tradurre con "Non farne un dramma" o "Non farne un affare di stato"
8
votes
How do we say "right back at you"?
Lo stesso vale per te va più che bene ed è di uso comune; come suggerisce l'utente @Bakuriu, forme diffuse sono anche a te o anche tu, che talora suonano meglio:
«Auguri di buon Natale!» «Grazie, ...
- 1,945
8
votes
Accepted
Duck translation
Anatra refers to the wild animal while papera refers to the same animal considered as a pet.
From Treccani:
Il germano reale (Anas platyrhynchos) e l'oca selvatica (Anser anser)
sono allevati da ...
- 20.4k
8
votes
Accepted
Come faccio a capire quando “torta” corrisponde a “cake" e quando a “pie”?
I must admit that, as an Italian, I am not sure about the difference between “cake” and “pie” (apart from specific cases). In fact, I find the two images quite similar and both look like particular ...
- 37k
8
votes
Accepted
What does "cazzuccio" mean?
The standard Italian sentence (low, colloquial register) would be
La macchina è mia e la tengo come [cazzo] mi pare a me, va bene?
The car is mine, and I keep it (how I [fucking] like / how [the fuck]...
- 3,336
8
votes
Chiddu ca fù fu
I am going to answer the part of the question that is on topic: would an educated Italian (not from Sicily) understand these quotes?
In this case the answer is an unambiguous no. I dare to consider ...
- 12.1k
8
votes
Come posso rendere "to be on sick leave" in italiano?
Ciò che hai letto su WordReference è ciò che più comunemente viene detto.
Sono malato, quindi sono in malattia.
Essere "in malattia" non significa "essere malato", ma è proprio un modo di dire "...
- 1,556
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible