Property valuation

The nineteenth entry is la prestazione energetica, the energy performance of a building, and the noun covers a field that does not sit on top of the English one. La prestazione is what somebody or something is bound to deliver, and then delivers. It is the output of a machine, le prestazioni del motore. It is the showing of an athlete, una prestazione deludente. And it is, in law, the very thing owed under a contract: la prestazione del venditore, l’inadempimento della prestazione. What it is never is the evening at the theatre. « Performance » in English quietly ties the engine, the athlete, the contract and the concert into one word; Italian keeps the last of them apart and calls it lo spettacolo, l’esecuzione or l’esibizione. The borrowed la performance does exist over there, but it has been reserved for the art form and for sports commentary. So una buona prestazione praises a machine, a player or a debtor who paid on time, and « a fine performance of the quartet » has to change its noun before it can cross.