Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

For members

ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian word of the day: ‘Totoministri’

Open any Italian newspaper today and you're likely to spot this word among the headlines. But what does it mean?

Published: 3 February 2021 16:13 CET
Updated: 27 September 2022 15:52 CEST

Italian word of the day: 'Totoministri'

Photo: DepositPhotos

It doesn’t have anything to do with Italian comic treasure Totò – more’s the pity – but it often has elements of farce.

You’ll hear the toto~ prefix whipped out whenever speculation is rife: it comes from gambling, specifically the football pools.

Named Totalizzatore calcistico (‘Football Totalizator’) or Totocalcio for short, it’s a sort of sweep that allows players to bet on the results of several upcoming matches in exchange for a small fixed fee.

Totocalcio signs outside a newsagent’s shop in Italy. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Journalists adopted the term as a catch-all phrase for making more or less informed guesses about an uncertain outcome, especially in politics and especially when you’re talking about multiple outcomes at once.

That’s why toto~ crops up in newspaper-speak in neologisms such as totonomine (‘nomination sweep’), totopoltrone (‘parliamentary seat sweep’) or totocolle (literally ‘hill sweep’, using another piece of journalistic shorthand for the official residence of the president, which is located on Rome’s Quirinal Hill – thus the term means ‘president sweep’).

This week, though, there’s already a lot of speculation about the totoministri: or ‘minister sweep’ – who’ll make the cabinet in Italy’s new government, which may not be formed for weeks yet.

“Totoministri, the squad for Meloni’s government”. Headline on Corriere della Sera from September 27, 2022.

You’re unlikely to hear the term used in conversation, but it will definitely come in handy for making sense of Italian headlines between now and then.

Making sense of Italy’s infamously tumultuous politics, on the other hand… we’re working on it.

You can find all The Local’s latest political news reports here.

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

An earlier version of this article was originally published in 2019.

Member comments

Anonymous - 10 February 2021 at 04:50 CET

I enjoy the explanation of wòrds

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Italian word of the day: Metà vs mezzo

It’s often the case in Italy that you’ll find several words that mean something very similar, and it’s not always easy to know which one is appropriate. Our new mini series looks at some of the most common word pairs, and sorts out which should be used and when.

Why do I need to know the difference between metà and mezzo?

Because you’ll need to use both of them in daily conversation if you live in Italy, but the difference in meaning isn’t always clear.

What’s the difference?

When you want to talk about ‘half’ of something in Italian, it may seem as though you have two choices.

Depending on what you’re talking about, you could reach for either metà or mezzo (or mezza, which we’ll come to later) but many language learners say they’re not always sure which one to use in certain situations.

Put simply, the difference between metà and mezzo is much the same as the difference between ‘half’ and ‘middle’ in English.

Metà: a half, as in one of two equal parts of something.

Mezzo: the middle, as in equally distant from two points.

For example:

Ha mangiato metà torta

He ate half of the cake

Facciamo a metà

Let’s split it (in half)

E’ sdraiato in mezzo alla strada

He’s lying in the middle of the street

Non penso che ti dovrebbe mettere in mezzo

I don’t think she should be putting you in the middle of this

READ ALSO: Come stai vs come va

But is anything in Italian ever really that simple?

There are some specific situations where the two words seem to be used interchangeably, or where it’s not clear why one is typically used and not the other.

Confusion arises particularly around telling the time in Italian, as you could say:

Sono le undici e mezzo

It’s half past eleven

Il mio treno arriva alle 5.40: vediamoci dieci minuti prima, alla mezza.

My train arrives at 5.40: let’s meet ten minutes before, at half past.

Why in this case aren’t we using metà for ‘half’? And why is it sometimes mezza rather than mezzo?

The English ‘half past’ doesn’t translate literally into Italian. Mezzo is used here instead, since we’re talking about the ‘middle of’ the hour, the point equally distant between two hours.

This might take some getting used to for English native speakers, but it is pretty logical.

As for why it’s mezza in the second example, this isn’t because it needs to agree with the gender of the noun in the sentence.

In fact, dictionaries tell us it’s always more correct to use mezzo regardless (although many Italians themselves find this rule confusing.)

But, in this case, as the language guardians at Italy’s Accademia della Crusca explain, mezza may (if you prefer) be used instead of mezzo when we already know the time, or at least the hour, being talked about.

So if you had earlier told someone an event would start at 8pm, but it’s now been delayed by half an hour, you could then say:

Comincerà alle otto e mezza

But if you’re inviting someone for the first time, you’d probably stick to:

Alle otto e mezzo

This can be a lot to remember when you’re in the middle of a conversation, but with practice you’ll soon get a feel for which word sounds right in which context.

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

Make sure you don’t miss any of our Italian words and expressions of the day: download 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!