C2 · 25 words
Restoration in Italian
A treatment that has to be capable of being undone.
Practise this list
From these 25 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 twenty-second entry is la doratura, gold laid on in leaf thin enough to move in a breath, and the two languages have taken that image to opposite conclusions. English made it a reproach. « To gild the lily » is to decorate what is already beautiful and so to spoil it, and the phrase is a welding together of a line in King John that pairs gilding refined gold with painting the lily: the play says both, the idiom kept one flower and one metal. Most of what English built on gilding carries the same suspicion of surface — « a gilded cage », « the gilded age », « gilt-edged » for a thing whose shine is the selling point. Italian went the other way. Dorare la pillola is to gild the pill, which is to soften bad news for the person who has to swallow it: an act of tact, and English sugars the pill rather than gilding it. So the same gold leaf is a criticism on one side and a courtesy on the other, and on this page it is neither — here it is a technique, and a guazzo says which one.
The words
Noun (m) (15)
Grammar for these: Definite article: il, lo, la · Indefinite article: un, uno
l’intervento minimothe minimum interventionNoun (m)C2
il legantethe binderNoun (m)C2
il saggio di puliturathe cleaning testNoun (m)C2
il ritocco pittoricothe retouchingNoun (m)C2
il telaio a cuneithe keyed stretcherNoun (m)C2
il restauro della cartathe conservation of paperNoun (m)C2
il prodotto di corrosionethe corrosion productNoun (m)C2
il clima della vetrinathe climate inside the caseNoun (m)C2
il restauratorethe conservatorNoun (m)C2
il gel solventethe solvent gelNoun (m)C2
l’impaccothe poulticeNoun (m)C2
lo stucco di integrazionethe fill materialNoun (m)C2
il trattamento in anossiathe anoxic treatmentNoun (m)C2
il tampone di umiditàthe humidity bufferNoun (m)C2
il recupero d’emergenzathe emergency salvageNoun (m)C2
Noun (f) (10)
Grammar for these: Definite article: il, lo, la · Indefinite article: un, uno
l’analisi dei materialithe analysis of the materialsNoun (f)C2
la sezione lucidathe polished cross-sectionNoun (f)C2
la scagliaturathe flakingNoun (f)C2
la foderaturathe lining of the canvasNoun (f)C2
la desalinizzazionethe desalinationNoun (f)C2
la condizione di prestitothe loan conditionNoun (f)C2
la proposta di interventothe treatment proposalNoun (f)C2
l’etica della professionethe ethics of the professionNoun (f)C2
la riflettografia infrarossathe infrared reflectographyNoun (f)C2
la doraturathe gildingNoun (f)C2
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This list belongs to Art and culture — 26 lists and 929 words that can also be practised as a whole.