Caruccio

Hi folks, In lesson 5.1 (Domestic), we are introduced to a new alternative word for cute or expensive: _caruccio_. Unfortunately it isn't listed in the transcripts, so I had to guess the spelling from Maria's pronunciation. Strangely, when I tried to look up this word in several dictionaries, I found to my surprise that it wasn't listed anywhere - even in a pure Italian dictionary written for italians! Why is that? Is it considered to be slang, for example? In the end, the only place I could find it (to finally confirm my spelling) was to do a search on Google! Very strange! Cheers, Butch

Caro Butch, you have a good point! Not even in the best Italian dictionary you could find "caruccio".. Caruccio comes from "caro" (dear or expensive/ pleasant) and "caro" comes from the Latin "carus". The reason why we don't find the word "caruccio" in dictionaries is because in Italian we can change, slightly the meaning of a word (noun/adjectvive/adverb) by adding a suffix to the original word. Common suffix: ....uccio/a (to make things small) .....ino/ina (to make things small) .....issimo/issima (to make superlative) .....accio/a (for pejorative) .....one (to make it big) Examples: Caro - becomes: caruccio(rather expensive)- carissimo(extremely expensive) Bello - becomes: belluccio/bellino(rather beautiful)- bellissimo(extremely beautiful), bellone( big and beautiful). Macchina becomes: macchinina or macchinuccia (small car) macchinaccia(horrible/old car), macchinone(big car) Vaa bene? A presto!