L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30 2023 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano T he Italian word dopotutto (do h-poh-toot-toh) a c o m p o u n d o f " d o p o " ( a f t e r ) a n d " t u t t o " ( a l l o r e v e r y - thing), encapsulates the idea of summing up or concluding w i t h c o n s i d e r a t i o n o f a l l f a c t s , a k i n t o t h e E n g l i s h phrases "after all" or "in the end." This term is rooted in the Italian language's Latin origins, with dopo coming f r o m t h e L a t i n a d v e r b post, "after," and tutto deriv- ing from the adjective totus- a-um, which means "all." However, the compound d o p o t u t t o , i s a r e l a t i v e l y modern construction in the Italian language, as it likely started being used in its cur- rent form during the evolu- tion of modern Italian, which began to take shape during the late medieval and early Renaissance periods. This was a time when the Italian language was experiencing significant development and standardization, especially with the proliferation of liter- ature and poetry that played a crucial role in shaping its structure and vocabulary. 1 from 2 (he) does; (he) makes 5 (he) has 7 (you/tu) weigh 8 lions 14 (we) visit 16 chair 19 China 20 the (feminine) 21 into, going inside 22 of; from Using the provided meanings as clues, search for the appropriate Italian word in the grid 1 from the 3 bees 4 (you/tu) use 6 (I) know 9 they 10 night 11 grapes 12 oasis 13 with the 15 aunt 16 (you/tu) know 17 (I) give 18 wings D o p o t u t t o i s c o m m o n l y used in both spoken and writ- ten Italian, serving as a tran- sitional term that helps in drawing conclusions or shift- ing the narrative towards a summarization, but also in introducing final observa- tions or justifications. For i n s t a n c e , i n a s e n t e n c e like Ha deciso di unirsi a noi per la cena, dopotutto era libero quella sera, it trans- lates to "He decided to join us for dinner, after all, he was free that evening," and pre- s e n t s a c o n c l u s i o n d r a w n after considering all circum- stances. Here are some more exam- ples of its use! Dopotutto, si è rivelato un buon investimento In the end, it turned out to be a good investment Non dovresti essere così sorpreso, dopotutto conosci il suo comportamento You shouldn't be so sur- prised, after all, you know his behavior Ma perché non ti riposi un poco? Dopotutto sei in vacanza! Why don't you rest a little? You're on holiday in the end! LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Dopotutto, the word you use when you find the right conclusion © Hongqi Zhang (aka Michael Zhang) | Dreamstime.com 1 to listen 2 to run 3 light 4 bird 5 boy 6 woman 7 Monday 8 home 9 river 10 girl 11 face 12 to eat 13 to drink 14 book A C R O S S D O W N ITALIAN WORD SEARCH The solution to these word games will be available on the next edition. Games courtesy of Lexis Rex

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