Emergency and safety

Two thirds of the way down the list is introdursi in, and an English reader meets it already carrying the wrong picture. « To introduce yourself » is the first thing anybody is taught to do in a room full of strangers, and the two words look the same. Italian keeps them apart completely. Introdursi is physical: it is to get oneself inside something, through a gap, a window, a door left open — si sono introdotti nel magazzino di notte is a burglary and nothing else, and a newspaper will use exactly that verb. Saying your own name is a different verb altogether, presentarsi: mi presento, sono il vicino di sotto. The Latin introducere, to lead in, held both jobs — leading a person in, and getting a thing in — and each language kept a different half. English did keep a trace of the Italian half in « to introduce a bill » and « to introduce a new rule », where nobody is being met and something is being brought inside. On this page, though, the verb has one reading only, and it is the one with the broken window.