Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

For members

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Italian expression of the day: ‘A bruciapelo’

We're going to give it to you point blank.

Published: 27 January 2022 15:45 CET

Italian expression of the day a bruciapelo

Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

If you regularly read the cronache sections of your newspaper or watch Italian murder mystery shows, before long you’ll encounter the phrase a bruciapelo: ‘at point blank range’.

Literally, a bruciapelo means ‘to burn the body hair/fur’, referring to hunters shooting animals at such close range that the gunshot scorched their hide.

You’ll often hear the phrase used in descriptions of crime scenes:

L’autista e il passeggero sono stati colpiti a bruciapelo.
The driver and the passenger were shot at point blank range.

Gli ha sparato a bruciapelo con una pistola nascosta nell’armadio.
She shot him at point blank range with a gun hidden in the wardrobe.

Pam Grier Smoking GIF by BrownSugarApp

Gli ho chiesto a bruciapelo se qualcosa non andava.
I asked him point blank if something was wrong.

Il mio capo mi ha chiesto a bruciapelo se avessi fatto domanda per un lavoro altrove.
My boss asked me outright if I’d applied for a job somewhere else.

A little beyond the capabilities of ‘point-blank’, a bruciapelo can also mean something more like ‘out of the blue’ or ‘all of a sudden’.

La domanda a bruciapelo mi ha preso alla sprovvista.
The unexpected question caught me off guard.

Mi ha dato la notizia a bruciapelo senza nemmeno avvertirmi di sedermi prima
She broke the news to me out of the blue without even warning me to sit down first.

Unexpected Getting Younger GIF - Unexpected Getting Younger Younger GIFs

Hopefully the next time you find yourself in an encounter a bruciapelo, you manage to dodge the bullet.

Is there an Italian word of expression you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Italian word of the day: ‘Meriggiare’

Have you ever rested outdoors in a shady place in the hot hours of midday? Perhaps you had a book with you or fell asleep on a hammock. Italian has a verb for this: meriggiare.

Now admittedly, meriggiare (pronunciation available here) is a word that’s rarely used in the modern Italian language, but it does still exist.

To add to its allure, it cannot be translated into English. It’s very specific to a midday nap in the heat. Perhaps the nearest English word would be ‘nooning’, yet that is somewhat archaic.

According to Italian dictionary Trecanni meriggiare also means to rest at home around noon, particularly after eating. It’s not just for the outdoors, and it’s similar to having a siesta.

The verb, which has the same conjugations as any other Italian verb, was first said to be introduced in Eugenio Montale’s poem Ossi di seppia (cuttlefish bones) where he wrote the following:

Meriggiare pallido e assorto…

Non rifugiarti nel’ombra…

This can translate to:

Resting pale and absorbed…

Don’t take refuge in the shadows…

But enough of the poetry. Can you use this rare verb in everyday language?

Let’s take a look at some examples.

Io meriggio sulla mia amaca quando la temperatura è troppo calda.

I rest on my hammock when the sun is too hot.

Meriggiavano sotto gli alberi.

They rested under the trees.

Lei meriggia dopo pranzo.

She rests after lunch.

So next time you’re in need of a rest in the shade after a heavy Italian lunch, you’ll have the perfect word to describe it.

See our complete Word of the Day archive here. 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 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.

Url copied to clipboard!