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ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian word of the day: ‘Tifoso’

We think you’ll be a fan of this Italian word.

Published: 9 July 2021 10:21 CEST
Updated: 12 June 2024 10:34 CEST
Italian word of the day: Tifoso
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

As the Italian national football team prepares to make its debut in the Euro 2024 tournament on Saturday, you may come across the word tifoso in multiple news reports this week.

It might be easy to tell from the overall context that the word means ‘fan’ or ‘supporter’, but do you know how to use the word correctly?

The verb tifare means to support, cheer for, or root for, and it’s pretty much exclusively used when talking about sports.

Sono qui a tifare per l’Italia.

I’m here to support Italy.

So a supporter then is un/a tifoso/a. The plural tifosi is used to describe a group of supporters (all-male or mixed gender – an all-female group would be tifose). 

These are probably going to be fans of football teams, but you may also hear people talking about tifosi in relation to other sports too, including auto and bicycle racing, basketball and volleyball.

Whatever the sport, the word implies that these particular fans will be particularly dedicated – perhaps truly fanatical.

You can also say fare il tifo, which also simply means ‘to support’ or ‘to cheer for’.

Faremo il tifo per voi in questa maratona.

We’ll cheer for you in this marathon.

Curiously, the word tifo, which derives from the ancient Greek typhos, didn’t originally refer to devoted support for a particular athlete or team. 

In its literal meaning, tifo refers to typhus, or typhus fever – an infectious disease which can cause an outbreak of delirium in those who suffer it. 

Over time, sports fans in Italy, and especially football fans, came to be labelled tifosi (literally meaning ‘people infected with typhus’) as their frenzied support for their favourite team was seen as resembling the altered mental status associated with typhus fever.

You could also describe these types of supporters as appassionati, but you wouldn’t call them fans – even though the Italian language has adopted this English word.

‘Fan’ is more commonly used in Italian when talking about admirers of musicians or other famous people. So while you could be un fan di Madonna, you would be un tifoso di calcio (a football fan).

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

Don’t miss any of our Italian words and expressions of the day: download our app (available on Apple and Android) and then select the Italian Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button.

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For members

ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian word of the day: ‘Campo’

We're sure you'll have a field day learning all the meanings of this Italian word.

Published: 9 July 2024 11:20 CEST
Italian word of the day: ‘Campo’

If you’ve been following the Euros on Italian TV, there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with the term campo da calcio, or football pitch (soccer field in American English). 

And if you’re a tennis fan, you may have heard Italian commentators mention a Campo Centrale (or Centre Court) while analysing Wimbledon matches in recent days.

Quite conveniently, campo (hear it pronounced here) is a bit of a catch-all term for surfaces used as playing areas. Here are some other examples:

Campo da golf – Golf course

Campo da basket/pallacanestro – Basketball court 

Campo da baseball – Baseball field

Campo da pallavolo – Volleyball court

But campo is also used to refer to any type of field, whether that be used for farming purposes – for instance, a campo di grano (wheat field) or campo di patate (potato field) – or simply found in nature, as in the case of a campo di fiori (flower field). 

La mia casa sta li’ giu’, dietro quel campo di tulipani.

My house is down there, behind that tulip field.

Campo is also frequently used in relation to military efforts and wars. For instance, you may have already come across campo di battaglia (battlefield) or campo di addestramento (training ground) in Italian news reports.

And a number of popular Italian phrases derive from the military usage of the word, including scendere in campo, which literally means ‘to enter the field’ but is used figuratively to say you’re joining a race, battle or contest.

Finally, if you live or have spent some time in the country, you may have overheard an Italian saying something along the lines:

Scusa. Ti devo richiamare. Non ho campo.

I’m sorry. I’ll have to call you back. I have no ‘field’. 

But what does ‘having no field’ (non avere campo) mean?

As you may have already guessed, campo is often used as a synonym for segnale (signal). 

So, if someone’s saying that there’s no campo or they have no campo, it means they have no phone reception and can’t make or receive any calls.

As a final note: besides being a noun, campo is also the first-person singular of the present tense of the verb campare, which is often translated into English as ‘to get by’.

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

Don’t miss any of our Italian words and expressions of the day by downloading our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Italian Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button.

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