L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 20 L'Italo-Americano I t a l i a n h a s s e v e r a l ways of saying that something happened early, but anzitempo ( a n - t s e e - t e m - p o h ) has a little more judgment than most of them. If you arrive at the station twenty minutes before your train, you are simply in anticipo, but if winter arrives in Octo- ber, a career ends unexpect- edly young or somebody is f o r c e d t o g r o w u p s o o n e r than they should, anzitempo is what you would use. The word is an adverb and means "before the expected or appropriate time," "pre- maturely" or, quite literally, "before its time." It is written as one word today, although its construction is easy to recognize: anzi and tempo. The anzi here belongs to an older use of the word mean- ing "before" or "in front of," d e r i v e d f r o m L a t i n a n t e , rather than to the modern a n z i u s e d t o c o r r e c t o r strengthen a statement: è bravo, anzi bravissimo – "he is good, actually, very good." T h i s o l d e r m e a n i n g remains in anzitempo, even though it has largely disap- peared from everyday Italian on its own. The word works especially well when there was some natural or expect- ed timetable that has been 1 goat 5 I 6 less 7 wide 13 (we) cook 15 chair 18 life; waist 19 (feminine plural of) the 20 (you/tu) start Using the provided meanings as clues, search for the appropriate Italian word in the grid 1 with the 2 for 3 (I) love; hook (for fishing) 4 (feminine of) a, an 8 hip 9 people 10 echo 11 (you/tu) fall 12 you (plural) 14 more 15 (you/tu) know 16 (you/tu) give 17 wings interrupted: a politician may l e a v e o f f i c e a n z i t e m p o ; a soccer player can end a sea- son anzitempo because of an i n j u r y ; u n u s u a l l y w a r m weather can make flowers bloom anzitempo. It is also common in phrases such as invecchiare anzitempo, to age prematurely, or morire a n z i t e m p o , t o d i e b e f o r e one's time. Careful to another com- mon word, presto, which is not always a substitute: È arrivato presto simply tells u s t h a t s o m e o n e a r r i v e d e a r l y ; è a r r i v a t o a c a s a anzitempo suggests that the return happened earlier than p l a n n e d o r t h a t c i r c u m - stances cut something short. T h e r e i s o f t e n , t h e n , a small sense of a timetable gone wrong hiding inside the w o r d : s o m e t i m e s t h a t i s u n f o r t u n a t e , a s w i t h a n i n j u r y o r a n e a r l y d e a t h ; sometimes it is merely unex- pected, as with spring flow- ers appearing in February. So if something happens anzitempo, the clock has not necessarily moved faster. Somebody, or something, has simply got ahead of it! L a s t a g i o n e è f i n i t a anzitempo a causa dell'in- fortunio. T h e s e a s o n e n d e d e a r l y b e c a u s e o f t h e injury. Anzitempo: when something happens before "the right time" © Andrii Kucher | Dreamstime.com 1 to run 2 father 3 bird 4 Tuesday 5 woman 6 book 7 door 8 three 9 car 10 to eat 11 girl 12 two 13 hand 14 light 15 man 16 table 17 face 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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