Urology

The tenth entry is l’urgenza minzionale, and the noun inside it does a job that English has split between two words. L’urgenza is, first of all, the emergency: un intervento d’urgenza is an emergency operation, il pronto soccorso tratta le urgenze is a sentence about the casualty department, and the adverbial d’urgenza means straight away, without waiting for the list. English keeps that whole half under « emergency » and would never put « urgency » in any of those places. What « urgency » does carry is the abstract pressure of something that will not wait — the urgency of the matter — and then, in this one clinical corner, the bladder’s sudden demand, which is what this entry names. So l’urgenza minzionale is urinary urgency and has nothing to do with an emergency, while l’urologo è di guardia per le urgenze is about emergencies and has nothing to do with urgency. The working rule is short: for a case that cannot be postponed say « emergency », for a feeling that cannot be postponed say « urgency », and let the sentence around the Italian word decide which of the two it has already chosen.