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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Italian word of the day: ‘Scherzare’

No kidding, this word comes up all the time.

Published: 25 October 2019 16:06 CEST
Italian word of the day: 'Scherzare'
Photo: DepositPhotos

It might surprise you to learn that Italians get their word for joking around from… the Germans.

That's right, scherzare ('to joke') comes – via settlers to northern Italy – from an early Germanic word meaning 'to hop, jump or frolic'. 

Today's Italian version (pronounced “sker-tsar-eh”) still has the same sense of playfulness. It's not just telling jokes, it's what we'd call 'playing around' or 'goofing off'.

Si sono messi a scherzare con la neve come dei ragazzi.
They started playing around in the snow like kids.

Of course, saying something was just for fun is a good way to get away with things. It's the equivalent of saying you're 'kidding' or something is just 'a joke' (uno scherzo).

Sto scherzando!
I'm kidding!

Era solo uno scherzo!
It was only a joke!

Jokes come in all different shapes and sizes: uno scherzetto ('little joke') is a harmless 'trick', uno scherzo di mano is a 'practical joke' or 'prank', scherzo rozzo is 'horseplay', and uno scherzo da prete (literally, 'priest's joke') is a 'nasty' or even 'dirty joke', for reasons best left to the imagination. 

But when it's no time for kidding, you can use scherzare to suggest that someone is being too playful and not serious enough – that they're 'messing around'.

Smettila di scherzare con l'acqua!
Stop messing around with the water!

La situazione è seria: c'è poco da scherzare.
This is a serious situation: it's no laughing matter (literally: there's little to joke about). 

By the same token, if you say something 'doesn't mess around', you mean it deserves to be taken seriously – i.e. it's considerable or worthy.

Lei è brava, ma anche tu non scherzi.
She's good, but you're not bad yourself.

Se ieri faceva un freddo cane, oggi certo non scherza.
If yesterday was freezing, today isn't messing around either (in other words: it's very cold too). 

If you're not sure that someone's being serious – or can't believe they are – use scherzare to ask if they're joking. Even just rhetorically.

– Hai deciso di sposarlo?
– Stai scherzando?!
– Have you decided to marry him?
– Are you kidding?!

And if you want to assure someone that no, you're deadly serious, the answer, of course, is… 

Non sto scherzando!
I'm not kidding!

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

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ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian word of the day: ‘Bocciare’

Don't reject this word without at least giving it a try.

Published: 23 May 2024 12:50 CEST
Italian word of the day: 'Bocciare'

If you open your Italian test paper to see the word bocciato sprawled across the front in big red lettering, you’d be right in assuming it’s not good news.

Bocciare in Italian means to flunk, fail or to hold back.

Se non supero questo esame mi bocceranno.
If I don’t pass this exam they’re going to fail me.

Se continua a saltare le lezioni, verrà bocciata.
If she continues skipping classes, she’s going to fail out.

And bocciatura is the practice of holding a student who’s failed their end-of-year exams back a year.

Marco è stato bocciato mentre Alessia è stata promossa.
Marco was held back while Alessia moved on to the next grade.

Bocciato Sono Stato Bocciato Esame Compito Piangere Triste Tristezza Mr Bean GIF - Failed I Failed Sadness GIFs

Bocciare has other applications, however, outside the classroom. It can also more broadly mean to reject: 

Era solo uno dei tanti candidati che sono stati bocciati.
He was just one of a large pool of candidates that were rejected.

And you’ll often see the word appear in headlines about politics, where it usually refers to vetoing a proposal or bill.

I sindacati hanno bocciato la proposta del governo.
Labour unions rejected the government’s proposal.

Il ddl è stato bocciato dalla Camera dei Deputati.
The bill was defeated in the lower house.

The verb has its origins in sport: bocciare originally meant to hit one ball with another in the popular Italian pastime of bocce, or boules.

There’s been some debate as to whether bocciare can be used in the active voice by the person who failed or was rejected, as in the English ‘I failed the exam’, or whether it’s only something that can happen to you (‘I was failed/they failed me’).

L’Accademia della Crusca, Italy’s preeminent linguistic authority, has weighed in on this and determined that it would amount to a semantic ‘absurdity’ in Italian for the victim of a failure to be the author of their own failing (to fail or reject themselves, so to speak).

So while you might hear someone use a phrase like Claudio ha bocciato l’esame in a colloquial context, it’s not technically considered good Italian – at least not for now.

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

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