Parole UGUALI, significato DIVERSO

0:00 Do you, by any chance… play the piano?

0:02 Do you live on the second floor?

0:04 Do you already have a piano for the weekend?

0:07 Do you speak softly?

0:08 Have I used the word “piano” too many times?

0:11 Maybe so.

0:12 Now let me explain, piano piano… The word piano

0:15 is one of the most abundant polysemie words in Italian.

0:20 Polysemy?

0:20 What does it mean?

0:22 Polysemy is the property of a word having multiple meanings.

0:26 It derives from two Greek roots, “poli-” (many) and “sema,” meaning “sign,

0:32 meaning.” And so, “piano” can be

0:35 the abbreviation of “pianoforte” (the musical instrument),

0:39 it can mean “slowly” (to go slowly), it can be a project when we say “let's

0:46 make a piano.” It also has a more geometric meaning,

0:49 and indicates a uniform surface, so we have a “cooking surface” or a flat

0:55 area in the sense of “flat,” like the Po Valley,

0:59 or the “floor” of a house, when you live on the first, second, or third floor,

1:04 or a “worktop.” All these meanings

1:09 originate from the Latin word "planus," which, in fact, indicates a flat,

1:15 undulating surface, "plain" like a "piano," precisely.

1:17 And from here, it also took on the figurative meaning of "clear,"

1:22 "easily understandable," a straightforward explanation

1:24 (although this usage is somewhat rare).

1:27 And then came the contrast with the word

1:30 "forte," and thus we arrived at the piano, that instrument that can be played

1:36 both "softly" and "loudly." This is indicative

1:39 of the birth of some new words and of the fact that, little by little,

1:45 slowly, over time, words change meaning.

1:48 Today we're talking about precisely this.

1:51 My name is Davide, and this is Podcast Italiano,

1:54 a channel for those learning Italian.

1:56 Turn on the subtitles if you need them;

1:58 the full transcript of the video is on my website, podcastitaliano.com.

2:02 I've also prepared a PDF that accompanies the video,

2:07 which you can use while watching.

2:09 I also recommend printing this PDF, by the way: it will be very useful.

2:14 You'll find a summary of everything we've covered,

2:17 as well as additional information,

2:18 including other words that have more than one meaning in Italian.

2:22 There are also many exercises to significantly expand your vocabulary.

2:26 It's very useful; I'll leave the link in the description,

2:30 but you can also scan this handy QR code.

2:34 Sometimes polysemy arises from different words that end

2:39 up having the same form without actually being related.

2:44 For example, in Italian,

2:46 the word "calcio" can mean hitting something with the foot,

2:50 but also the most popular sport in Italy (in which,

2:54 precisely, you hit the ball with your foot, kicking it),

2:58 and even the lower part of a gun: the butt of a pistol.

3:03 All these meanings originate from the word

3:07 "calcium," which in Latin meant "heel," that is, the back of the foot.

3:13 This is also where the word "calcagno" comes from, by the way,

3:17 which we use mostly in the expression "stare alle calcagna," which...

3:22 well, it's mostly used in dubbing, in the dubbing of TV series and films.

3:28 In Italian, however, the word "calcium" also has a fourth meaning:

3:33 it is a chemical element found, among other things, in the human skeleton.

3:38 This last meaning originates from another word,

3:41 "calx" (which gave rise to the word lime,

3:45 a building material) and was invented in the early

3:49 1800s by the chemist who discovered calcium as an element.

3:54 It's therefore possible for two words to have a similar or identical form,

3:59 but a completely different etymology, a completely different origin.

4:02 This is the case, for example,

4:04 with the word "riso," which derives from the Latin

4:07 "risus" and means "to laugh," the act of laughing.

4:11 But we also have the rice we eat, with which we make risotto,

4:14 which derives from the Late Latin oryza, in turn from Ancient Greek.

4:18 A similar case is that of the word "viola," which, on the one hand,

4:23 identifies the flower and the color and derives

4:26 from an identical Latin word, but on the other,

4:29 indicates the musical instrument that owes its name to the Provençal

4:33 "viula." If we stay within the realm of flowers,

4:36 we also have the word "rosa," which has followed a similar path to viola,

4:40 in the sense that it indicates both the flower and the associated color.

4:45 The color purple.

4:46 Note that these words are invariable; they don't change,

4:50 and therefore there are no differences in the singular.

4:54 plural, masculine or feminine,

4:56 precisely because they weren't really adjectives but were

5:00 used together with the word "color" or color,

5:04 so we said "a purple dress." Over time,

5:07 we lost the word "color," leaving only "viola" or "rosa," but it's invariable.

5:13 And so "una camicia rosa," "due camicia rosa."

5:17 Or "una camicia viola," "due camicia viola." It doesn't change.

5:23 Still in the botanical realm,

5:24 we have the word "pianta," which refers to both a tree or a flower,

5:29 but also the lower part of a foot, the part that touches the ground.

5:33 Furthermore, in architecture, it means the graphic representation of a space,

5:38 a building: the floor plan of an apartment.

5:41 Now we move on to words belonging to the plant kingdom,

5:46 with "rammo" and "campo." A "branch" is both one of the parts

5:51 of a tree that extend from the trunk and a branch of a discipline.

5:57 The study of linguistics, for example,

5:59 has several "branches": descriptive linguistics, sociolinguistics, etc.

6:04 The word "campo" has a broader meaning,

6:07 literally a piece of land intended for cultivation,

6:11 but metaphorically also indicates a sector, an area.

6:14 It's probably the same in your language, too.

6:18 And if you've visited Venice,

6:19 you'll surely have noticed that, aside from Piazza San Marco,

6:23 all the other squares are called "Campo."

6:25 This name derives from the fact that Venice's

6:29 "campi" were once actual cultivated "fields," where fruit

6:34 and vegetables were grown and animals were raised.

6:38 And speaking of animals,

6:39 let's talk about the "coda." A tail can be the final part of an animal's body,

6:46 with various figurative meanings: those with long hair can tie it in a ponytail,

6:51 a piano is called a "grand piano," the final

6:54 part of a speech or piece of writing can be

6:58 called a "coda," the writing that appears at the end

7:01 of a film is the "credits." The main meaning,

7:05 however, aside from the animal-related one,

7:07 is a synonym for "queue," meaning when people wait their turn one after another.

7:13 Or next to each other, if we're in Italy.

7:16 Well...

7:17 we're quite famous for our messy queues.

7:19 And so we say "essere in coda" (being

7:21 in a queue) or "essere in fila" (being in a queue),

7:24 or "fare la coda" (being in a queue), or "fare la coda" (being in a queue).

7:27 Among the most common polysemie words,

7:29 we have two important words in mathematics:

7:32 the first is "volume." Volume indicates the space occupied by a body, an object.

7:38 It's a word with very ancient origins,

7:40 referring to the paper used to close a papyrus scroll and, later,

7:46 the number of parts into which a book was divided.

7:49 Even today, when a book is very long,

7:51 like an encyclopedia, it is published in multiple volumes.

7:55 And something that takes up a lot

7:57 of space is precisely "voluminous." From physical space,

8:00 volume also describes the intensity of a sound,

8:03 so a radio can be turned on at low or high volume,

8:07 and if it's turned up to maximum,

8:10 we say "at full blast." The other "mathematical" word is operation.

8:15 In mathematics, the operations are addition,

8:18 subtraction, multiplication, and division.

8:20 But when you say "I have to have

8:23 an operation next week," you're not talking about mathematics,

8:28 but rather a surgical operation, or a surgical procedure,

8:32 when doctors open up a patient's body to fix it (hopefully, at least).

8:39 "Operation" originates from the verb "operare," which means "to do,

8:43 to act," and so with such a generic meaning,

8:47 the word can take on many different meanings.

8:50 There's a police operation, when the police arrest a criminal,

8:54 for example; a banking operation,

8:56 when we move money from one account to another;

8:59 there are electoral operations, when there are elections, and so on.

9:06 After talking about mathematics, plants, and pianos,

9:09 let's conclude with a truly everyday object: a slipper.

9:14 "Slipper" is a polysemy,

9:16 not so much because it has multiple meanings with different origins,

9:20 but because the same word gives its name to different

9:24 objects that vaguely (very vaguely) have the same elongated shape.

9:29 The first object, the one that gave rise to all these meanings, is a slipper,

9:35 a shoe open at the back of the foot that we use at home.

9:39 From this object, we call it a slipper.

9:41 of bread, when we're talking about a low, elongated roll.

9:44 Ah, the names of different types of bread are a topic

9:48 that could be covered in an entire video or perhaps even books,

9:52 but let's not dwell on that now!

9:54 Bread should not be confused with the third object of the same name, namely...

9:58 a multiple electrical outlet.

9:59 Do I have one here?

10:01 Wait, I have one over there...

10:03 there, like this one.

10:04 It may seem strange, but this one, too, is called a ciabatta in Italian.

10:09 Wait, let me see...

10:10 are they similar?

10:11 I don't know...

10:12 do you see a resemblance?

10:14 In any case, they are three fairly common objects

10:16 in Italian homes because we all have ciabatta at home,

10:19 we all eat this type of bread sooner or later, and apparently,

10:23 there are never enough electrical outlets,

10:25 so we all need to have multiple of them.

10:28 By the way, I have a ciabatta hidden here that you can't see.

10:32 At this point, to close the discussion on polysemy,

10:36 it's important to reiterate a very important concept when studying languages:

10:40 we always try to understand a word based on its context.

10:45 It should be obvious when I speak whether I'm talking about a slipper,

10:49 a bread slipper, or an electrical outlet.

10:53 These three objects aren't easily confused.

10:56 Therefore, when looking up a word in a translator, a dictionary,

11:02 or even when asking someone who speaks the language you're learning,

11:07 you should always remember to refer to words

11:10 in the same sentence or text that provide context.

11:14 You might find yourself in a situation where someone is very hungry and eats...

11:21 an electrical outlet.

11:22 No, better to eat a slipper, in that case.

11:25 Well, we've reached the end of the video.

11:28 If you're interested in a PDF

11:30 that summarizes everything we've covered today, with examples,

11:34 images, and exercises,

11:35 as well as other examples of interesting polysemy in Italian,

11:39 as well as exercises to test yourself with everything you've learned,

11:43 you can find it at the link in the description,

11:46 or you can download it by scanning this QR code.

11:54 That's all for today, see you next time!