Someone at the Bologna-based dictionary publisher Zanichelli must have looked up the word ‘epitome’ and had an idea.
Who else but world champion motorcyclist Valentino Rossi to write about ‘speed,’ the legendary Sophia Loren to describe ‘beauty’ or author of the Sicilian Inspector Montalbano series, Andrea Camilleri, to explain ‘dialect’?
The entries for more than 100 words in the 2016 edition of Italian dictionary Zingarelli feature such ‘signature’ definitions, penned by Italians who epitomize the word.
Camilleri, in his signature note accompanying the definition of ‘dialect,’ writes, ‘In my family we spoke both dialect and Italian. When I read stories aloud, I realized I could be more effective if I used a mixed tongue. I started to ask myself why Italian wasn’t enough and I studied how Pirandello made his characters speak’.
The 2016 edition of the Zingarelli also includes 500 neologisms, many from English, including ‘expat,’ ‘show cooking’ and ‘startupper.’
