Farming and food

Thirty-ninth on this list is il macello, the slaughterhouse, and away from the trade it is one of the commonest words in spoken Italian for a mess. Che macello is said of a kitchen after a party, a motorway on a Friday or a meeting that went badly; fare un macello is to create chaos, or simply a great deal of noise; un macello di gente is an enormous number of people. The building keeps the same plain word, although the one on a licence is il mattatoio. What makes the entry worth stopping at is that English did exactly the same thing and has forgotten it. A « shambles » was first a bench or stall on which meat was sold, from scamellum, a little stool; then the row of such stalls, which is why several English towns still have a street called « the Shambles »; then the place where the killing was done; then any scene of carnage; and at last, quite recently, whatever is merely a mess. Only one of the two languages still hears where the word has been. Andare al macello has stayed dark in both.