About the word "figa".

[gemini_artemis]

So, in Italian, this is a fairly common word to refer to the female genitalia. Anyone who starts studying Italian should be able to learn this pretty early on, either by deduction or by the means of a dictionary

Comments

[pengychan]

Haha, I've got to say I'm pretty amused by the idea the word "figa" would be linguistically important. XD

Anyway, maybe you didn't figure that out because it's a PG-rated word in Brazilian? It's considered a very vulgar way to refer to female genitalia over here, so not at all PG-rated. It can also be used as an adjective for women, though. When used like that ("è proprio figa") it doesn't mean "she's a real vagina", but "she's really hot", and while not really a gentleman thing it's considered way less vulgar than using "figa" to refer to female genitalia. Beats me why. /random stuff I thought I should mention because why the hell not

[gemini_artemis]

What are you talking about? It totally is extremely important. B| Actually, I just thought it was amusing. *is easily amused*

Yeah, the difference in rating is probably what kept me from making the connection. XD There's also the fact that "figa" is so childish and vanilla as an insult in Brazil that it's not really common to hear it IRL. And I know about the other meanings of "figa" in Italian, like the one you mentioned, and the Portuguese "figa" isn't used in those other ways, so I guess that also got in the way of my insight. XD Say, how vulgar (or not) is the the word "figata", as in, "Questa fic è una figata!"? Is that like saying, "This fic is fucking cool!"?

[gemini_artemis]

Oh, by the way, I just remembered an amusing thing about the word "fica". I know that in Italian, it's another way of saying "figa". In Portuguese, it's an extremely common and 100% innocent word meaning "stays", "becomes" or "is located". Like, "Onde fica o banheiro?" (Where's the bathroom?) or "Fica aqui!" (Stay here!) or "Ele fica com vergonha" (He gets embarrassed). Apparently, this makes many Italians either giggle like 12-year-old girls or feel extremely uncomfortable/offended. XD

[pengychan]

Nah, "figata" isn't considered vulgar - it's more like "this is so damn cool!". Everyone uses it by now. It used to be more of a edgy thing when I was a kid (then again, me and my classmates were raised by nuns, so EVERYTHING less than perfectly polite would be edgy), but not anymore. XD

Haha, now that's a funny difference. XD

[anonymous]

o.o "Figa" is Italian? Here in Spain we use it...LOL (but mostly in a vulgar way, with the same female genitalia meaning xD

[gemini_artemis]

Oh, so that word also exists in Spanish? That's interesting!

I don't think it's an Italian word by origin, though. It's probably a Latin-derived word that Romance languages inherited. When I get back home (I'm at uni now), I'm going to look its etymology.

"Bola" is our standard word for any kind of ball, but it's also an euphemism for testicles. XD

And hey, don't worry about your English, it's great! But if you feel more comfortable writing in Spanish, I can understand that language perfectly.