Bellisima, They’re Not: Italians Rank Ugliest English Words
Travel Blog • Valerie Conners • 09.10.08 | 12:00 PM ET
You won’t hear any talk of “lo stress” or “le leadership” on the streets of Italy, if the Dante Alighieri Society has its way. The proclaimed protectors of Italian culture have asked the public to vote on the most offensive English word to be adopted into the Italian language. And the winner? “Il weekend.”
The society made its stand against the word clear; the Telegraph reports it declared on its official website, “Italians unite against il weekend ... it is clear that Italians are calling for more respect and more protection for correct language.”
It’s certainly true that the Italian phrase for weekend, fine settimana, is much lovelier to say, and if my native language were filled with lovely words that rolled off the tongue, like “andiamo” and “arrabiata,” I, too, might have a hard time embracing the relatively cacophanous “il email” or “il fitness.”
But seriously, weekend? It’s so innocuous. Surely, “webmaster” or “il full immersion training” is worse.
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Valerie Conners is the senior producer and editor at World Hum.
Paul Brady 09.10.08 | 1:53 PM ET
I was always a fan of lo yogurt, but i jeans is pretty good, too.
Michael Yessis 09.10.08 | 2:34 PM ET
il full immersion training is a lot worse. It makes me shudder.
Valerie Conners 09.10.08 | 4:14 PM ET
i particularly cracked up at the writer’s explanation for it, Mike: “Italians sometimes throw in English words to appear worldly and cosmopolitan, and at other times to describe things slightly alien to the Italian mindset, from ‘il fitness’ to ‘il full immersion training’.”