In a recent segment of Imma Tataranni, the verb sconvolgere came up, and was included in the vocabulary review as well.
Però poi, quello che ha scoperto l'ha sconvolta.
But then, what she discovered devastated her.
Caption 28, Imma Tataranni Sostituto procuratore S1 EP 4 Maltempo - Part 25
Play Caption
Sconvolgere and its past participle sconvolto are very common words and for anyone speaking Italian on a daily basis, the sense is clear (and can change somewhat depending on the context). But translating the verb into English is a different story, and so one wonders if there isn't some cognate that would make it clearer. The fact is that many of the translations we use for sconvolto (the past participle of sconvolgere, often used as an adjective) have other cognates in Italian. We'll list a few of them here:
"shocked," — scioccato
"devastated" — devastato
"disturbed" — disturbato or turbato
"To upset" might be the closest in meaning, but the idea of "upset" in English isn't always close enough to the strong emotion associated with lo sconvolgimento. We can often be upset, but not necessarily sconvolto. The adjective sconvolgente is used a lot to mean "upsetting" or "disturbing."
Ma senti, Amina che cosa ti ha detto di così sconvolgente?
But listen, what did Amina tell you that was so upsetting?
Caption 4, La Ladra EP. 11 - Un esame importante - Part 5
Play Caption
For the noun lo sconvolgimento, there are other English words such as "turmoil" and "upheaval."
So we thought it might be interesting to find out where sconvolgere comes from.
Our eyes and ears are drawn to the telltale S prefix which often indicates a relation with the word without its S and very often signals an opposing or negative meaning, or else it can add emphasis or strength to the word. Usually, the S signals a change with respect to the root word (if there is one). But what is the root word in this case?
A little research gives us the verb convolgere. Does it even exist? It doesn't appear in WordReference. But luckily, it appears in Wiktionary with source material from Treccani. Not surprisingly, convolgere comes from the Latin "convolvere." It's a literary term meaning avvolgere, ripiegare (qualcosa) su sé stesso, molte volte (to wrap, to fold something around itself, many times).
And within convolgere is the prefix con (from the Latin "cum," meaning "with).
Aside: Let's not confuse it with coinvolgere, which has the prefix co and the prefix in-. This verb means "to involve."
So, digging a bit more, we get to the true root: volgere. And what a verb it is. Lots of nuances! But let's try to find the one that will then lead us to sconvolgere. Let's go with the Collins dictionary, which gives the synonym piegare verso (to bend towards).
Let's try to visualize this verb: something folds or bends in a direction. If we add con, it wraps around itself many times and we get convolgere. Then, if we add an S, this whole wrapped-up thing turns topsy-turvy. In other words, an upheaval. The verb to upheave does exist, but we don't use it very often.
This lesson has concerned itself with the meaning of sconvolgere. But there is another very common S-word related to volgere: svolgere, a very common verb meaning different things depending on whether it's used normally or reflexively. See this lesson about svolgere.
Most of us know what a piazza is. It means something akin to the town square. In Italy, there may be a main piazza, but there can be many others spread around a city.
La piazza è dedicata al...
The piazza is dedicated to...
all'artista e scultore Michelangelo Buonarroti.
to the artist and sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti.
Caption 12, In giro per l'Italia - Firenze
Play Caption
If you look at the dictionary entry above, you will see that there are various connotations of the noun piazza.
Piazzare is a verb. It can mean "to place" something somewhere.
Qua abbiamo piazzato la macchina da presa.
Here, we placed the camera.
Caption 27, Fratelli Taviani - La passione e l'utopia
Play Caption
Piazzare often means to sell — to put on the market with success.
Be', questa pietruzza la posso piazzare per una bella cifra.
Well this little rock I can place/sell for a pretty penny.
Caption 42, La Ladra - EP. 1 - Le cose cambiano
Play Caption
But when we add an S to the beginning as a sort of prefix, the meaning changes. Something is set up or placed and seems stable, but then you displace it: spiazzare. It's generally used figuratively to mean "to catch someone off guard."
So, spiazzare is "to cause someone to feel less stable." You floor them, you take away their certainties, you take them by surprise.
E poi ti spiazzava.
And then she would take you by surprise.
Spiazzava te che eri al suo fianco,
She would totally surprise you, you, who were by her side,
spiazzava il pubblico.
she would floor the audience.
Ma a volte ti accorgevi che spiazzava anche se stessa...
But sometimes you would realize that she took even herself by surprise...
Captions 29-32, Illuminate - Margherita Hack - Part 11
Play Caption
E io sono abituata a condurre il gioco. Insomma, mi sento spiazzata.
And I am used to leading the game. Basically, I'm flummoxed.
Captions 77-78, Provaci ancora prof! - S1E3 - Una piccola bestia ferita
Play Caption
Yabla has been featuring a documentary series about famous Italian women. One of these women was Margherita Hack, who was a renowned scientist and astronomer. Her story is pretty fascinating.
Margherita grew up during the Italian fascist period and then got married in 1944 when the war was still going on. The war years were very rough for Italians. There was little food to go around, and money was scarce. In fact, when they got married, both Aldo and Margherita had coats that were "turned inside out." What did that mean?
Tutti e due con un cappotto rivoltato,
Both with a coat turned inside out,
perché allora i soldi veramente erano molto pochi.
because at the time there was really very little money.
Captions 38-39, Illuminate - Margherita Hack
Play Caption
It took a little research to figure out what rivoltato really meant in this context. It's actually kind of interesting.
Margherita and Aldo, like many Italians in the 1940s, likely had coats made of wool — lana, with a silk lining — una fodera di seta. In those days, when a coat became too shabby to be presentable, it would not be thrown away. Heaven forbid! Instead, a seamstress or someone in the family who knew how to sew (which was fairly common), would open up all the seams — scucire, then turn the woolen part inside out, and resew — ricucire the lining back on. The coat at that point was like new, or close enough.
Italians have traditionally been attentive to clothing and keeping it nice. Nowadays, it frequently costs less to buy a new item of clothing, but years back, when a collar of a shirt would get frayed, it would be turned around and resewn, or even removed completely, rather than anyone buying a new shirt. If a wife and/or mother knew how to sew, she would make shirts for the men and boys in the family and blouses and skirts for the women and girls. But clothes had to be taken care of and they had to last.
When il tessuto (the fabric) has been consumed to the point of being unsightly, the Italian word is liso (frayed, worn, threadbare). Another, more common adjective is sciupato (ruined), from the verb sciupare.
The parts of a shirt that are frequently turned inside out and re-sewn are:
We'll report here some explanations of this tradition from the WordReference Italian only forum: (We've also translated it into English for you.)
Quando c'era molta miseria ed il cappotto era liso non lo si buttava. Semplicemente lo si faceva rivoltare ad una sarta in modo che la parte esterna, sciupata, andasse all'interno e scomparisse alla vista.
When there was a lot of poverty and a coat was frayed, it wasn't thrown away. It was simply turned inside out by a seamstress so that the outside part, all worn out, would go on the inside and disappear from view.
La fodera è seta cucita sulla lana. Una sarta può scucirla e ricucirla sulla parte opposta. Poi si fa lo stesso con le tasche; si rovescia il colletto, e voilà, il padre di famiglia aveva risparmiato qualche soldino per la famiglia!
The lining is silk sewn onto the wool. A seamstress can take the stitches out and sew it on the other side. Then the same is done with the pockets; [then] you turn the collar inside out, and voilà, the father of the family had saved up a little money for the family!
-Sì, era molto comune all'epoca. E si faceva soprattutto col colletto delle camicie. Quando diventava liso, lo scucivi e lo rovesciavi per cucirlo dalla parte ancora intatta. Pensa che i prezzi dei cappotti - e dell'abbigliamento in generale - erano proibitivi all'epoca: in proporzione con i prezzi di oggi un cappotto semplice poteva costare anche mezzo stipendio.
-Yes, it was very common at the time. And it was mostly done with the collar of a shirt. When it became worn out, you took the stitches out and turned it inside out to sew it on the still intact side. Just think that the prices of coats - and of clothing in general - were prohibitive at the time: in proportion to today's prices, a simple coat could cost even half a paycheck.
A word that is related to rivoltare is risvolto. We're still talking about something turned over. For more about the root verb voltare, see this lesson. Ri often means "again" and voltare means "to turn." Il risvolto is commonly used to mean "lapel" but can also refer to the cuff on a pant leg or shirt. This word came up in another Yabla video.
In the wonderful Yabla series based on a true story Non è mai troppo tardi (It's never too late), Alberto is teaching in a reformatory and wants to sneak in some pencils for the boys to write with. The kids have plenty of experience pilfering things, and show him where to hide the pencils: in the lapel or flap.
Mae' [maestro], qui, nel risvolto della giacca,
Teach, here, in the lapel of the jacket,
le metti qua dentro. -Qui?
you put them in here. -Here?
Captions 65-66, Non è mai troppo tardi - EP1
Play Caption
If you haven't watched this series yet, non è mai troppo tardi!
Something else Italians like to flip or turn over is la frittata (the omelet), either literally or figuratively.
...perché lo conosco.
...because I know him.
Lui ha una capacità nel rivoltare le frittate
He's very capable of flipping the omelet [turning the tables]
che non ci puoi credere.
like you wouldn't believe.
Captions 36-37, Sposami - EP 1 - Part 4
Play Caption
When Marika showed us her balcony, she used a couple of long words that may have seemed a bit daunting. There are certainly plenty of long words in Italian that are just plain difficult, like farmaceutico (pharmaceutical). The meaning is clear, but pronouncing it takes some practice (don’t snub any of the vowels). Other words, though, have common abbreviations that make life easier. And some long words can be broken down into their parts, making them easily comprehensible as well as pronounceable.
One of the words Marika used in her video was stendibiancheria. It’s long but there’s help.
First of all, most people just say lo stendino (the drying rack).
Second of all, if we start breaking down stendibiancheria into manageable parts, the next time it comes up, you’ll know what it means from the inside out, and you will probably be able to pronounce it as well.
We start out with the verb stendere. It’s a very useful verb that means to spread, to lay out, to stretch out, to extend over space. Thinking of “extend” can help recall this verb.
An interesting extra fact is this:
In the eighteenth century, in Tuscany at least, the (transitive) verb was tendere, that is, to stretch out, to unfold (after washing and wringing out) so that the laundry would dry faster.
As we have learned in a video, and a written lesson, adding an s at the beginning of a word can give it an opposite meaning. So, stendere used to be the opposite of tendere, and meant taking in the now dry laundry, or rather taking it off the clothesline.
Later on, stendere and tendere lost their distinction (dictionaries indicate that in many contexts, stendere and tendere mean the same thing).
Stendere survived as the most common term for hanging up the laundry. Let’s also remember that lacking a clothesline, some people would also have spread their clean laundry on bushes or rocks to catch the sun, so stendere—“spreading it out” makes a certain amount of sense.
Another important context for stendere is cooking.
In the following example, we start out with little balls of pizza dough, but then we spread them out to cover a larger area. So when you are following a recipe in Italian for making fresh pasta or pizza, stendere la sfoglia is when you roll out the dough, spread it out by hand, or use a pasta machine to make wide, flat strips.
Queste pallette [palline] poi vanno fatte lievitare circa due ore
These little balls then are left to rise about two hours
e si stende la pizza.
and you roll out the pizza.
Captions 15-16, Anna e Marika - Pizza al taglio romana
Play Caption
The past participle of stendere, steso, which can also pass for an adjective, is useful for when you are talking about positions in space.
Stavo, mi ricordo, guardando le olimpiadi, stesa sul divano
I was, I remember, watching the Olympics, lying on the couch
come una balena spiaggiata.
like a beached whale.
Captions 12-13, Anna presenta - Il mio parto
Play Caption
In the above example, “stretched out” could have worked just as well to translate Anna’s position.
When referring to muscles or just how someone feels, we can use teso (tense), the past participle of tendere, also used as an adjective.
Ha notato qualcosa di strano? Se era teso, preoccupato?
Did you notice anything strange? If he was tense, worried?
Caption 19, Il Commissario Manara -S1EP9 - Morte in paradiso
Play Caption
The prefix dis is also used to give a word the opposite meaning. In fact, disteso, the past participle of distendere and adjective, can mean either “relaxed,” “unwound,” or “out,” as in the following example.
Per dire: "ci sentiamo per telefono",
To say, "we'll talk by phone,"
si porta la mano all'altezza dell'orecchio
you bring your hand up to the height of your ear
e si simula la cornetta,
and you imitate a receiver,
tenendo pollice e mignolo distesi.
holding your thumb and little finger out.
Captions 9-12, Arianna spiega - I gesti degli Italiani
Play Caption
Tendere also means “to tend” as in tendenza (tendency). That’s a nice cognate, isn’t it?
Le piante tendono, quando si inselvatichiscono,
Plants tend, when they become wild,
a fare i frutti molto più piccoli.
to produce much smaller fruit.
Captions 17-18, Gianni si racconta - L'olivo e i rovi
Play Caption
It’s easy to be confused by all these words that are so close in meaning. Context is key, so just keep watching, listening, and reading, and piano piano ce la farai (little by little you’ll make it), one word at a time!
Anglais
Espagnol
Allemand
Français
English
Español
Français 
Deutsch
Italiano