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Italian expression of the day: ‘Buon Natale’

There's no better time of year to learn this festive phrase.

Published: 25 December 2019 09:58 CET
Updated: 25 December 2022 09:54 CET

Italian expression of the day: 'Buon Natale'

Photo: DepositPhotos

We pretty sure you can guess what this one means: buon Natale is Italian for ‘merry Christmas’.

It’s all pretty straightforward: buon is ‘good’ and Natale is ‘Christmas’. But word geeks (ourselves included) will be interested to see that the Italian word for Christmas comes from the Latin for ‘day of birth’.

It’s not just anyone’s ‘birthday’ – that’s compleanno, the day you ‘complete the year’ – but one birthday in particular: natalis dies Domini, or ‘the day the Lord was born’. It’s the same root that gave English the word ‘Noel’.

Nat King Cole got the translation right in his 1959 song about “a quaint little town” in Italy where “the Christmas season is celebrated all year”: as he sings, “Buon Natale in Italy means a Merry Christmas to you”.

But his pronunciation isn’t quite on point. Here’s the proper way to wish it:

Or if you’re looking for a few alternatives, you can also say buone feste (‘happy holidays’) or more formally, ti auguro un Natale pieno di amore, pace e felicità (‘I wish you a Christmas filled with love, peace and happiness’).

And with that, all of us at The Local wish buon Natale a tutti!

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

Italian word of the day: 'Choc'

You may come across the word choc in Italian in some unexpected contexts. While it looks like it might be an abbreviation of the Italian word for chocolate (cioccolato), that would be choco.

It’s pronounced much like the English ‘shock’, and has roughly the same meaning.

As in French, choc is used in Italian as an adjective meaning ‘shocking’. But if you’re already familiar with the French usage, be aware that it doesn’t have quite as many different applications in Italian.

And it’s not a word you’ll hear used in spoken Italian very often. You’re far more likely to see it written down, and almost always in news headlines.

In fact, choc is one of those words – like ‘maxi’, ’tilt’, and ‘boom’ – which can be categorised as giornalese: language used almost exclusively by Italian newspaper editors.

You might spot it above reports of, for example, un arresto choc (a shock arrest), dati shock (shocking data), bollette choc (shocking utility bills) or even scontrini choc (shocking bills or receipts).

A headline in Italian local newspaper GenovaToday

‘Shocking bill in the centre: 8 euros for a caffè marocchino’: A headline in Italian local newspaper GenovaToday on May 27th, 2024.

You might also see the English ‘shock’ used as an adjective in the same way. This is especially common in advertising: phrases like prezzi shock (‘shocking prices’ – by which we imagine retailers mean ‘shockingly low’…) can be a little jarring to Anglophones.

While we wouldn’t recommend peppering your Italian-language speech with either ‘choc’ or ‘shock’ – unless you want to sound like an over-enthusiastic advertising executive – at least you won’t be surprised (or shocked) when you see these words used around you.

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

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