You’ve seen this guy before: the older gent who strolls around at construction sites, asking questions, offering suggestions, and kibitizing about the activities there. The Italian dictionary Lo Zingarelli (Amazon) recently added the handy neologism umarell, or “little man,” which refers to such a person, noting that he roams around mostly con le mani dietro la schiena, “with his hands behind his back.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Umarell, the Italian Alter Kocker”
Here’s a word that was recently added to at least one dictionary in Italy, and the word is Umarelle. and That is a neologism for a concept that’s been around for a long time.
An umarel is a kind of older gent, and the Zingarelli Dictionary says something to the effect of an umarel is somebody who strolls around at construction sites, checking, asking questions, giving suggestions, or criticizing the activities that take place there.
And the dictionary definition describes that person doing all that, con le mani dietro la schiena, which means with his hands behind his back.
I mean, you’ve seen these guys outside of construction sites. They’re universal and the world over.
He’s retired. He’s got nothing better to do but look and see what these youngsters are up to and just kind of tsk, tsk, tsk, you know.
These altercockers, right, in New York, just standing there and just kibitzing from behind the fence. Giving advice.
Yeah, the word umarel is from a dialectal word that means little man. And it was popularized by writer Danilo Mazzotti.
Perfect. We love hearing the new words from other languages. What languages do you speak?
There’s something new happening in them.
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