Words for two senses that have to get by on about five in everyday speech.
Practise this list
From these 40 words, as many per round as you like — up to all of them: first what is due today, then new ones. First you choose, then you fill the gap, then you write it yourself. Mistakes come back again shortly.
More about this list
The fourteenth entry is acre, and it is the one word here an English reader will misread with complete confidence. In Italian it is an adjective, and it describes a smell or a taste that bites: the smoke off a dead fire, a harsh wine, something chemical catching at the back of the throat. It comes from the Latin acer, keen or sharp-edged. The English « acre » is a noun, it measures a piece of land, and it has nothing whatever to do with that Latin word. It arrived through Old English æcer, an open field, and the Latin word it is properly related to is ager, the field that gives « agriculture ». Two families, two meanings, one spelling. What English does hold from acer is « acrid », and that is the translation wanted here, carrying the same rasp: acrid smoke, an acrid smell. So un fumo acre is acrid smoke and never an acre of anything. Beside it on this page sits pungente, which pricks the nose rather than burning it.
The words
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Verb (4)
puzzare dito stink ofVerbC2
Il cappotto puzza di fumo dopo la serata.The coat stinks of smoke after the evening out.
puzzareto stinkVerbC2
L’acqua nel vaso ha cominciato a puzzare.The water in the vase has started to stink.
aleggiareto waftVerbC2
Dalla cucina aleggia un odore di pane caldo.A smell of warm bread wafts out of the kitchen.
permanere nell’ariato linger in the airVerbC2
L’odore di vernice permane nell’aria per giorni.The smell of paint lingers in the air for days.
