In Italy, the word giallo is rarely out of the headlines.

That’s because the word is a byword for a certain type of mystery, thanks to a popular series of detective stories – usually quite short books in the pulp genre, often with unbelievable twists – that were published in the early 20th century between distinctive yellow covers.

Un giallo is still used as shorthand for ‘a detective story’ today.

But in Italian newspaper-speak, giallo can refer to anything vaguely mysterious: like ‘riddle’ or ‘enigma’. Most often you’ll see it accompanying crime stories, particularly when the culprit isn’t yet known.

‘Mystery surrounding the death of the auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, shot in the heart at home: a recent crime story.’

It’s also used to spice up the fairly mundane. Local residents report hearing an unexplained noise? It’s un giallo. Sports reporters aren’t sure what time a football match starts? Un giallo again. 

‘Ahead of Lazio-Roma, the time of the derby is a mystery: decision expected today’: one sports headline from 2019.

Headline writers are the people most prone to use the word this way: in everyday speech, you’re more likely to hear giallo (pronounced “jial-lo”) in all the places you’d expect it – on a football pitch (un cartellino giallo is a ‘yellow card’), inside eggs (il giallo dell’uovo – ‘egg yolk’) and all over the phone book (le pagine gialle – ‘Yellow Pages’).

But there’s one extra place it turns up: on traffic lights, which for some reason in Italy turn giallo instead of orange or amber.

Do you have an Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.