Spazzatura

spazzatura
sweepings, trash, refuse

At one of my first formal Italian classes, I entered the room with an empty paper coffee cup in hand.

“Spazzatura?” the amiable young teacher asked.

“Sì,” I responded, certain that I wanted whatever this spray of sibilant syllables offered. Then I tracked her outstretched arm as she pointed to the waste basket in the corner.

“Trash,” she said in English.

“Such a lovely word for such an ugly thing!” I exclaimed.

“Bella, sì,” she replied. “Anche molto vecchia.” (Also very old.)

How old? Like many of the words in Italian’s linguistic base---its 10,000 most-used words—spazzare (to sweep) dates back to the fourteenth century, when it appeared in the writings of Italian’s first great narrative stylist, Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). With such a literary pedigree, it's not surprising that trash sounds beautiful in Italian—especially when you’re sweeping it with a rustic handmade twig broom like this one I photographed at a Tuscan villa.

Over the centuries spazzatura sprouted offshoots such as spazzatina, (dusting), spazzola (brush) and spazzolaio (brushmaker). More recent derivatives include spazzamine (mine-sweeper), spazzaneve (snow plough) and my favorite, spazzolino da denti, a toothbrush. But although the word remains the same, spazzatura has taken on forms unimaginable seven centuries ago.

Months ago, when Naples ran out of places to dump or incinerate its garbage, trash piled up in huge, stinking mounds. On the Italian television news, alarmed citizens protested. Health officials sounded warnings. Politicians ranted in outrage. I couldn’t understand much of what the native Neapolitans were saying in their lilting dialect, but one familiar word echoed through every news report: spazzatura.

This medieval word actually inspired a catchy contemporary song, “La Spazzatura,” by Marco Saltatempo. Could lyrics like “Throw out the trash, the trash stinks” (“Butta la spazzatura, puzza la spazzatura”) sound so appealing in any other language?



Sayings and Expressions

“Amore mio, puoi portare fuori la spazzatura?” -- “My love, can you take out the garbage?” (one of the most useful questions I ever learned from a language website)
TV spazzatura – trash TV (used to describe gross reality shows and similar programs)
spazzacamino – chimney sweep
spazzavento – a windswept spot
spazzola da panni – clothes brush
spazzolarsi capelli – to brush one’s hair

cafone

cafone
peasant, bumpkin, hick

Every country has its share of jerks, clods and ignorant slobs, but Italian reserves the word “cafone” (pronounced cah-fon-ay) for its home-grown variety. This utterly Italian insult traces its history back to Cafo or Cafonis, a centurion of Mark Anthony, mentioned several times by Cicero. Its linguistic pedigree includes a debut in Italian literature in 1861, the year of the nation’s unification, in a publication called La perseveranza (Perseverance).

Cafone can apply to any generic dork, but Italian offers distinctions for the son of an ignorant bumpkin (figlio d’un cafone), a crude slob (cafone rozzo), a tasteless boob (cafone sciocco), an ill-mannered fool (cafone maleducato), an officious ass (cafone impertinente), a tasteless jerk (cafone senza gusto), and a disgusting boor (cafone ripugnante).

The most recent Galateo (Italian etiquette book) includes a “dizionario delle cafonate,” an alphabetical listing of boorish behaviors that include throwing chewing gum on the ground per la gioia delle suole altrui (for the joy of others’ soles); sticking a finger into un pertugio del corpo (a body opening), grattarsi ostentatamente (scratching oneself ostentatiously) and using fingernails as stuzzicadenti (toothpicks).

I have used cafone exactly once—at a free concert celebrating April 21, Rome’s official birthday, at the city’s opera house. The mainly elderly Romans, dressed smartly (as their generation always does), were already seated when a pudgy foreigner in shorts and a tee shirt squeezed into our row to take the empty seat next to mine.

“Please don’t let him be American,” I prayed, but as soon as I heard his string of “Excuse me’s,” I knew he was. Just as he sat down, he erupted into a volcanic sneeze. Obviously lacking a handkerchief, he blotted his nose with the back of one hand and then wiped it dry on his hairy thigh. The appalled woman on my other side and I locked eyes and almost simultaneously mouthed the same words, “Che cafone!”

Cafone also can refer to something molto buono (very good): pane cafone, the simple daily bread of Naples and the surrounding region. You don’t need Italian to follow this basic recipe. Just watch Mr. Bread at work:



Sayings and Expressions:

If you encounter a cafone:
Ma Lei, cafone ci è nato o ci è diventato? -- Were you born rude or did you become rude?

Synonyms (useful if you ever find yourself trading insults with a cafone): rozzo, villano, zotico, buzzurro, maleducato