L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano T hank an Italian for h o l d i n g a d o o r and you will often be told figurati ( f e e - G O O - r a h - tee), which on paper means "imagine," though nobody at t h e d o o r i s a s k i n g y o u t o imagine anything. The stress falls on the second syllable, and it is important, because figuràti with the stress at the end is another word altogeth- er, the plural past participle of figurare, "depicted." The one you hear at the door is the familiar imperative of figurarsi, to picture some- thing to oneself, and both come from the Latin figura, which comes from fingere, the verb a Roman used for shaping clay. This root also gave English figure, feign and fiction, so the words for picturing and for pretending turn out to be one family. The verb had already moved into common language by the time of the Decameron, where Boccaccio w r i t e s t h a t F o r t u n e h a s a thousand eyes, come che gli sciocchi lei cieca figurino, however blind fools picture her. Figùrati, along with figuri- amoci and si figuri, is used emphatically either to confirm 1 aunts 6 (you/tu) cut 7 from there/here; of/about it 9 to play 10 airplane 11 (he/she) enters 12 (they) jump 15 and (before a vowel) 16 land 17 he Using the provided meanings as clues, search for the appropriate Italian word in the grid 1 uncles 2 age 3 garlic 4 (they) win 5 to enter 8 drink, served beverage 9 (you/voi) throw 11 (I) enter 13 from the 14 (you/tu) do or to deny something; when they say grazie to you, you deny that there was anything to thank you for, as in, for instance, Grazie per avermi a i u t a t o o g g i ! a n d y o u answer, Figurati ("Thanks for helping me today!" "Not at all!"). If you add se ("if"), the word turns sarcastic, so figu- rati se followed by something that will never happen is a flat refusal, the way an English speaker says a dry "as if." The formal Lei gets si figuri, and a group gets figuratevi. Figuriamoci means "let alone," or "as if" and it asks you to picture something even further out of reach than the l a s t : F i g u r i a m o c i s e d i domenica mattina mi sveglio alle sei ("As if I'd ever get up at six on a Sunday morn- ing!"). Scusa il ritardo, ho perso l ' a u t o b u s . F i g u r a t i , s o n o arrivata anch'io adesso. "Sorry I'm late, I missed the bus." "Don't mention it, I only just got here myself." Mio cugino non si alza prima delle dieci, figuriamoci per andare al mercato alle sei. "My cousin won't get up before ten, let alone go to the market at six." Figurati: a word that goes from polite to sarcastic © Olena Yakobchuk | Dreamstime.com 1 Tuesday 2 to turn 3 two 4 school 5 woman 6 mother 7 man 8 three 9 car 10 friend 11 to drink 12 light 13 to run 14 heart 15 to hold 16 hand 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 LA VITA ITALIANA TRADIZIONI STORIA CULTURA

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