The words the research is done in, and the arguments are had in.
Practise this list
From these 32 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 eleventh entry is la spedizione punitiva, and the noun in the middle of it is one an English reader recognises and then misreads. « Expedition » is in there, right enough, and for this historical term the two match. Everywhere else they part company, because la spedizione earns its living as the sending of a thing: the shipment, the consignment, the dispatch. Le spese di spedizione are the postage on an order, la spedizione è partita ieri says the parcel left the warehouse, and behind all of it stands spedire, to send, as ordinary a verb in Italian as « to post » is here. The trap is the English verb that looks like the obvious partner. « To expedite » sends nothing anywhere; it hurries along something already under way, and it lives in offices and committees. Both words go back to Latin expedire, to free the feet, to get something out of a snare — from which one language kept the getting-it-moving and the other kept the getting-it-gone. So spedire un pacco is not expediting a parcel, and the term in this list holds the older, grander sense only because history froze it there.
Il protettorato lasciava in piedi il sovrano locale.The protectorate left the local ruler in place.
il governo indirettoindirect ruleNoun (m)C2
Il governo indiretto costava meno funzionari.Indirect rule cost fewer officials.
il lavoro forzatoforced labourNoun (m)C2
Il lavoro forzato serviva a costruire strade e ferrovie.Forced labour was used to build roads and railways.
il lavoro sotto contrattoindentured labourNoun (m)C2
Il lavoro sotto contratto legava la persona per anni.Indentured labour tied a person down for years.
il genocidiogenocideNoun (m)C2
Il genocidio è oggi una categoria del diritto internazionale.Genocide is today a category of international law.
lo stato successorethe successor stateNoun (m)C2
Lo stato successore ereditò confini che non aveva scelto.The successor state inherited borders it had not chosen.
lo scalo commercialethe trading postNoun (m)C2
Lo scalo commerciale nacque prima di ogni bandiera.The trading post came before any flag.
il trattato di protettoratothe protectorate treatyNoun (m)C2
Il trattato di protettorato era spesso in una lingua sola.The protectorate treaty was often drawn up in one language only.
il collaborazionistathe collaboratorNoun (m)C2
Chi fosse un collaborazionista si discute ancora.Who was a collaborator is still argued over.
il movimento anticolonialethe anti-colonial movementNoun (m)C2
Il movimento anticoloniale nacque anche nelle scuole aperte dai colonizzatori.The anti-colonial movement arose in the schools the colonisers had opened as well.
i resti umanihuman remainsNoun (m)C2
I resti umani nei depositi pongono una domanda a parte.The human remains in the stores raise a question of their own.
