Word of the Week
Written by admin on 2 April, 2009 – 9:15 am -
I am taking a break from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte characters. I’ll pick them up again next week.
The word I discovered yesterday is…
bisbigliare
to whisper
Why this strange word? Well, here’s the story.
The bosses dog, Aston, was sleeping on the floor near my desk. I leaned towards him and whispered in a really low voice biscotto (biscuit). He jumped up like a flash of lightning and ran over to the box where his food is kept. He seems to have a good grasp of Italian and his hearing is second to none!
That’s him in the photo. A cool character, he’s well behaved too. Even has his own group on Facebook, Aston & Co. There are some nice photos of him there so go and have a look. As for his Italian I’ll have to test a few more words out on him in the future (and reward him with biscuits)!
Posted in Interactive |
By The MDs on Apr 4, 2009 | Reply
At first I thought ” is one cool cat”. Then I realised that it was a “Dog”. Still a “cutie” though.
By The MDs on Apr 4, 2009 | Reply
Perhaps our two tortoises (due tartaruge) should have there own fan club on facebook! They even understand Enlglish and know where their lettuce (lattuga) and cucumber (cetriolo) are kept.
By GattoGiallo on Apr 5, 2009 | Reply
My former c@t (G@ttoGiallo, that’s why…) reacted immediately and in a specific way to about 10 whispered words, no matter the language (fr, en, it) - between them : mosca, appetito, bestiolina, spazzolare, su, giù, esci, vieni, basta, and so on…
By GattoGiallo on Apr 5, 2009 | Reply
… I’ve forgotten “pallina” (always whispered), he loved to run after a paper pallina and bring it back to me until he had enough and (I discovered this later) he went to hide them under my mattress… one day I discovered 19 “palline” there.
By Laura from Ciao Amalfi on Apr 8, 2009 | Reply
Ciao Mike! I am very happy to have found your blog via your comment on my article on the Venere blog. Great website! I am learning Italian now, and I really appreciate the humor and stories you include with your posts. I just learned “bisbigliare” last week, and I thought it was such a fun word to say! If you head down to the Amalfi Coast again, stop by to say ciao!
By Mike Coyle on Apr 15, 2009 | Reply
Thanks all.
@Laura – glad you are enjoying the blog and humour. It gives me encouragement to hear it. And ‘bisbigliare’ is a fun word, isn’t it. That’s why I wanted to share it. Enjoy Amalfi! (you are so lucky)