The other day, my husband, who rarely uses idiomatic expressions, said that a colleague’s husband was truly a pasta d’uomo. Earlier in the day he had complained that an old high school friend had become a mollusco. I was intrigued: I had no idea what he meant by these expressions that used foods—or more specifically, edible plants and animals—to describe men. As he explained, to be a pasta d’uomo means to be a very sweet guy. I find this charming, evidence of how much Italians love food.
Illustration by Leo Cardini
On the other hand, to be called a mollusk is not a compliment. It means that the man is somewhat boring. (I can picture the guy in question stuck to a rope, swaying in the gentle seas of the Mediterranean.) So I asked around: Is it common in Italian to describe men using food words?
Yes, it is. And apparently, when it comes to men, there are a lot of options on the table. Whether he’s skinny like a sardine (magro come un acciuga) or un bel pezzo di manzo (a good piece of beef), he could be a coniglio (scared like a rabbit) or a broccolo (a dud; ditto for carciofo and salame). Or, worse yet, he could be come il prezzemolo: everywhere!
