parole parole parole

parole parole parole… words words words. The famous song of Mina, in which she complains about a relationship that consists only of sweet, but empty, words. We need words to understand and describe the world around us. If we don't have a word for something, we are barely aware of its existence. So it's interesting to understand where words come from. Often they have come a long way before they take on a particular meaning and represent something.

Here are a few Italian (and Dutch) words whose origin I find interesting.

La fede – the trust

A nice example is faith. Faith means different things. Faith, for example in God, is la fede in Dioc.

You can also believe in something like democracy, avere fede nella democrazia. Faith also means the wedding ring and that is beautiful, because you believe in the other and so you get married. Or not?

la fedeltà is the fidelity and 'la fiducia' is the trust (think of: having faith in). 'La fede' comes from 'la fedeltà', the faithful.

In Dutch, getting married, as far as the word is concerned, has to do with both trust and fidelity. In Italian, linguistically speaking, you marry to remain faithful. 

If you think about that for a while, you immediately come to many clichés about the infamous infidelity of italian men (and therefore also women), but these are of course only 'words words words'.

I don't know of any studies on it, but I assume that infidelity is no more or less common in Italy than in other European countries. But who knows?

Incidentally, in Italian people sometimes use the word Fido to indicate a dog. That used to be a common dog name and of course comes from confidence.  I trust means 'I trust'.

L'architetto – the architect

A very simple word is architect, because arc means arc and roof is roof. So the architect was the person who could design arches and roofs.

If you look at some old churches, which are really huge and still standing, it was obviously not an easy task.

The normal houses were not designed by architects in the past. Most people lived in wooden houses and only in the last centuries has that completely changed.

Samples and exhibits

Mostru is Latin for miracle or a sign from God or harbinger. Derives from it in Italian a monster that's a monster. 

Dimostrare is almost the same as to exhibit and means 'to show'. The Dutch demonstrating comes from this angle (in Italian it is more often used protest).

An exhibition means an exhibition.

There is definitely something to see when a monster passes by and if you want to show something (to exhibit) make one show (exhibition). Two words that at first glance have nothing to do with each other, simply come from the same word from Latin.

Dementia and forgetting

If you have trouble remembering the word for forgetting, you should think of dementia, that terribly nasty disease in which you slowly become less and less able to remember. Forget = forget. 

The word dimenticare comes from mind that means spirit. Literally is dimenticare so something like 'being out of mind' or 'having no mind'. 

To lie means to lie and is a completely different concept, but also based on mind (compare the English mind).

La sirena – the siren

Screaming loudly, sirens serve the purpose of drawing our attention to them so that the vehicles under the siren can move quickly through traffic as everyone moves to the side.

Or that the break-in can be thwarted because everyone is paying attention to the building to which the siren is attached.

Screaming loudly is a way of saying. You could also say 'sing intensely'. When you sing so intensely that no one can get around you, what does that remind you of? Indeed to the mermaid. In italian siren, which has only been adopted in Dutch for the term siren. 

Soldiers and Salaries

Soldiers are people who fight as a profession. They get paid for it. 

Soldi means money. It comes from the Latin solidus (solid) and that was a gold coin at the end of the Roman Empire. 

Salary is a completely different story. The Italian word is wage (but nowadays it is used more often stipendio).

Salary comes from salt, salt. In the past, salt was indispensable for people to live and it was therefore possible to pay for labor in salt. That is why we are still talking about salary.