Treccani and the vitality of Italian

From ‘friendship’ to ‘arch-terrorist’, from ‘agrobiodiversity to ‘pezzotto’, from ‘differentiated autonomy’ to ‘trenopolitana’, from ‘wide field’ to ‘split-Italy’, up to ‘guru fluff’, ‘real estate racism’ , ‘fasting’ and ‘obligatory solidarity’: the Italian language, in the face of the continuous and massive invasion of English terms, is “increasingly vital and capable of producing interesting linguistic innovations due to the continuous evolution of customs and fashions, greater attention to the environment or simply to current events”.

The proof comes from the neologisms identified in the Treccani 2024 Year Book, words that have entered common use in the last two years but are not necessarily destined to be accepted by dictionaries. The new summary volume of the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia – which during 1925 will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its foundation by Giovanni Treccani and Giovanni Gentile – records many neologisms of our house, including ‘fediverso’, ‘honey trap’ and expressions related to politics such as ‘Telemeloni’ and ‘vannacciano’, or “those who support the military and politician Roberto Vannacci”. And General Vannacci is also present with the phrase ‘make a Decima’, with the meaning of “placing a cross, i.e. the X sign, on the ballot paper to indicate a voting preference”. Italian also knows how to create Latin or pseudo-Latin reminiscences, such as ‘ius scholae’ or ‘baratellum’.

“Ours is the task of observing the lifespan of these words – explains Treccani, as reported by Adnkronos – and in the Treccani 2024 Book of the Year we limited ourselves to recording the most widespread forms in the media, aware that Often few of these words are destined to last and enter permanently into the use of speakers and dictionaries of the Italian language ‘AI-talian’, which indicates the variety of written Italian produced by various types of generative AI, and ‘5.0’, which designates the production cycle, based on the development of ICT technologies, robotics and artificial intelligence”.

Among the words reported by the Treccani linguists and obtained largely from the media – or rather from the information bodies – we find numerous anglicisms together with words derived from English, such as ‘alcolock’, ‘pandoro-gate’ (the judicial case which the empire created over the years by the entrepreneur and influencer Chiara Ferragni was dented), ‘dissing’ (in an extensive sense, an exchange of accusations characterized by agitated tones and insults, penetrated into political debate as well as into everyday life), ‘Swift economy’, ‘top jobs’, ‘pommelier’ (cider tasting and serving professional), ‘crush, brat’, ‘starmerism’ (the conception of politics, economy and society supported by the British Labor Party Keir Starmer, who took office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), ‘Maga’ (English acronym for ‘Make America Great Again’ used in Italian to indicate those who support US President Donald Trump) or ‘boppone’ (in the colloquial language, a very catchy, rhythmic and danceable song, which excites at first listen).

“The spread of English in common language – observes Treccani – is always very strong, due to the influence of social media and, more generally, of the Internet, music and technological innovation”. But in some cases the English expression is replaced with the corresponding and more understandable Italian phrase, as happened with ‘intimacy coordinator’ which translates the English ‘intimacy coordinator’, a phrase which indicates the “professional who takes care of of the well-being and tranquility of actresses and actors before they face sex scenes or other intimate scenes of particular physical and emotional tension”.