Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Campaign demands Italian dictionary Treccani change its ‘sexist’ definition of word ‘woman’

About 100 high-profile figures from lawmakers to writers have signed a petition calling on Italian dictionary Treccani to change its “sexist” definition of the word “woman”.

Published: 7 March 2021 12:51 CET
Campaign demands Italian dictionary Treccani change its ‘sexist’ definition of word ‘woman’
Politician Laura Boldrini, one of the letter's signatories, speaks at the 2018 Women In The World Summit in New York. Angela Weiss/AFP

Ahead of International Women’s Day, the campaign says 30 different words for a sex worker, including “puttana” (whore) and “cagna” (bitch) should be removed from the list of synonyms.

The words appear as synonyms of the euphemism for sex worker “buona donna“, which is included in a list of expressions that use the word “donna” (woman).

It points out that while the terms associated with “woman” have negative connotations, the synonyms listed under the word “man” are generally positive.

The letter’s signatories include activist and politician Imma Battaglia, politician Laura Boldrini and deputy director general of the Bank of Italy Alessandra Perrazzelli.

“Such expressions are not only offensive but reinforce negative and misogynist stereotypes that objectify women and present them as inferior beings,” said the open letter, which was published in Italian newspaper La Republica on Friday.

The campaign was started by activist Maria Beatrice Giovanardi, who was also behind a similar one last year urging the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to remove words such as “bint” and “bird” as other ways of saying “woman”.

Oxford University Press updated its definition of “woman” in its dictionaries after a similar petition gathered 30,000 signatures.

However, Treccani’s Italian language vocabulary director Valeria Della Valle responded that she did not think the dictionary needed changing.

“It is not by invoking a bonfire…to burn the words that offend us that we will be able to defend our image and role (as women),” Della Valle wrote in her response.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

ITALIAN LANGUAGE

7 things you should know about the Italian language

With its musicality and large vocabulary, Italian is one of the most fascinating languages on the planet. But do you know everything about it?

Published: 5 March 2024 10:19 CET
7 things you should know about the Italian language

Italian is frequently considered as one of the most beautiful languages in the world. Its musicality, intonations and smoothness make it one of the most poetic languages out there. 

This Romance language is spoken by 67 million native speakers across the globe and it’s the official language of Italy, San Marino, The Vatican (along with Latin) and Switzerland (along with German, French, and Romansh). While the Italian language, like all Romance languages, derives from Vulgar Latin, Italy’s standard form is based on the Florentine dialect from hundreds of years ago.

Though standard Italian existed prior to the Unification of Italy in 1861, Italians themselves identified more strongly with their regional dialects, a lot of which are still in existence today.

Television played a crucial role in Italians learning the language: in the 1960s, national broadcaster RAI aired Non è mai troppo tardi (‘It’s never too late’), a TV programme where Italian teacher Alberto Manzi taught Italian to his audience.

Let’s take a look at some more interesting facts about Italian.

It became Italy’s official language in 2007

Yes, you read that correctly. Exactly 146 years after the country’s unification, Italian was formally written into the constitution as being Italy’s official language. 

There is a 500-year-old institution dedicated to researching Italian

The Accademia della Crusca (literally, ‘Bran Academy’) is a Florence-based institution which focuses on Italian linguistics. Founded by five Florentine men in 1582, the institute claims it wrote the first Italian dictionary (Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca), which was first published in 1612.

The longest Italian word has 30 letters

The word in question is (get ready for it) Psiconeuroendocrinoimmunologia. It’s a medical term that studies behaviours in response to external stimuli so it is rarely used in everyday speaking. 

Another long word is precipitevolissimevolmente.

READ ALSO: The Italian version of 11 famous English sayings

It’s a superlative of the adverb ‘hastily’, or precipitevolmente in Italian. There’s even a proverb with this word: chi troppo in alto sal, cade sovente precipitevolissimevolmente (‘those who climb too high, often fall very hastily’).

Italian is not the majority language in some areas of the country

The northern region of South Tyrol has approximately 520,000 inhabitants. Of those 520,000, around 69 percent use the German language more frequently than the Italian language. Even road signs in some of the areas bordering Austria are in German. 

Another northern region, Aosta Valley, recognises French as an official language. While the ratio of French speakers to Italian speakers is not quite as high as the ratio of German speakers to Italian speakers in South Tyrol, many of the region’s signposts are in both Italian and French.

South Tyrol

A German-Italian sign reading ‘private property’ at the entrance of a vineyard in the small village of St. Michael Eppan, South Tyrol. Photo by Christof STACHE / AFP

The name of a continent comes from Italy

It is generally accepted that the name ‘America’ derives from Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who claimed that the lands fellow explorer Christopher Columbus set sail to in 1492 were in fact part of a separate continent.

A map created in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller was the first to depict this continent with the name America.

The word ‘volt’ was created by an Italian

Speaking of nouns named after people, Alessandro Volta was an Italian scientist who made a breakthrough in the late 18th century when he created his ‘voltaic pile’ – the first-ever device to provide a steady supply of electricity. His last name is where ‘volt’ (and ‘voltage’) originates from.

READ ALSO: 15 Italian words that change their entire meaning with one letter

There are only 21 letters in the Italian alphabet

The Italian alphabet, which derives from the Latin one, only contains 21 letters. Letters j, k, w, x, and y are not formally included in it, though they can often be found in words of foreign origin.

The above list is non-exhaustive. If you know any other interesting facts about the Italian language, let us know in the comments below.

SHOW COMMENTS