Town and directions

Eighth in this list is la fermata, the bus stop, and it is a word many English readers already own without knowing what it really says. In music, « fermata » is the dot under an arc printed above a note: the sign telling the player to hold that note, and the orchestra with it, for as long as the conductor wants. That is the whole of the word in English — a term of notation, learnt in a rehearsal room and used nowhere else. In Italian it is the plain everyday noun for the place where a bus or a tram stops, painted on a pole at the kerb: la fermata è là, scendo alla prossima fermata, due fermate dopo il ponte. Both senses come from fermare, to stop or to hold still, and behind that the Latin firmare, to make firm. A held note and a halted bus are each something brought to a standstill and kept there. Knowing the musical word is an advantage on this page, provided it is not mistaken for the meaning.