Dermatology

The third entry is il prurito, and it is the most ordinary word on the page: the itch of a mosquito bite, the itch of a wool jumper, il prurito aumenta di notte. What makes it worth a stop is the cousin it has in English. The Latin verb prurire, to itch, reached us as well, but only through the learned door, and the adjective it left behind is « prurient » — which no longer itches at all. It describes an unhealthy appetite for the sexual, as in a prurient interest in a neighbour’s marriage, and it is a word of reproach. None of that clings to il prurito, which a chemist says to a child. A second difference runs beside it. English keeps two registers apart: the patient has « an itch » and the notes record « pruritus », so the clinical word is never the spoken one. Italian uses il prurito in both places, on the referral letter and across the kitchen table, and the verb behind it is prudere: mi prude la schiena, my back itches.