L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2025 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano I n Italian, svarione (svah-ree-oh-nai) is a masculine noun mea- n i n g a c l e a r , o f t e n embarrassing blunder. It is common in talk about language (svarioni di gram- matica), numbers (svarioni di calcolo), geography or his- tory (uno svarione nel pro- g r a m m a T V ) , a n d s p o r t s commentary (svarione della difesa). Its meaning is consi- dered stronger than errore or svista and close to strafalcio- ne, which stresses the comic or clumsy side of a mistake. Compared with errore, which can be neutral, svarione car- ries judgment: the slip was obvious and avoidable. Its register ranges from informal to neutral-informal. Etymologically, svarione comes from the verb svariare ("to vary, to deviate"), itself from variare with the pro- ductive prefix s- and the aug- mentative suffix -one. The idea is a big deviation from what's correct, hence, a blun- der. Older dictionaries also record senses like "sudden change" or "flightiness," but the standard modern mean- ing is the mistake. T y p i c a l p a t t e r n s o f u s e include expressions like sva- rione clamoroso, uno svario- n e i n c o p e r t i n a , s v a r i o n i grammaticali, svarioni di bilancio, lo svarione della retroguardia. In headlines and sport games reports, it often signals a single error 1 wool 3 dark 7 with the 8 skies 9 (they) rise 13 (a plural form of) in the 15 what; that; who 16 hatred 17 seas Using the provided meanings as clues, search for the appropriate Italian word in the grid 1 light, as sensed by the eye 2 (feminine of) in the 4 grapes 5 (he/she) hates 6 (he/she) chooses 10 knuckle 11 year 12 (you/tu) weigh 14 (a plural form of) the that changes a result. In edit- ing, it marks issues that need immediate attention, as in guarda che ci sono un paio di svarioni terribili nel pezzo. Correggilo! ("There are a couple of serious mistakes in the article: check it!"). From svarione comes the back-formed verb svariona- re ("to blunder; to produce a s v a r i o n e " ) a n d , i n s o m e speakers, the noun svario used with the same meaning. In youth slang you may hear fare uno svarione for a brief mental blank or daze; context clarifies whether we mean "blunder" (standard) or "momentary lapse" (collo- quial). S v a r i o n e c a n b e u s e d when you want to underline the visibility and clumsiness o f t h e m i s t a k e , b u t y o u should always prefer errore or svista for neutral, non- judgmental tone. Il comunicato è ben scritto ma pieno di svarioni di pun- teggiatura The press release is well written but full of punctua- tion blunders La partita è girata su uno svarione del portiere The match turned on a goalkeeper's blunder N e l r e n d i c o n t o c ' è u n o svarione di calcolo: diecimila dollari in più There's a calculation blun- der in the report: ten thou- sand dollars too many LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Svarione: the right word to use when you make a clumsy mistake © Fizkes | Dreamstime.com 1 to drink 2 man 3 river 4 face 5 table 6 two 7 boy 8 mother 9 to look 10 one 11 school 12 woman 13 shirt 14 door 15 light 16 three 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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