italics for foreign words?

Lizzie7800 · Dec 26, 2014

In my novel the grandmother is Italian and calls her granddaughter amore. She also calls meals by their Italian names. (antipasta, primo...etc.) Do I need to italicize these words? I wasn't sure, I want to keep them to add to her heritage, but I'm concerned they might trip the reader up. Any tips?

Tazlima · Dec 26, 2014

I'm not 100% positive, but I believe the standard procedure is that if it's a one-off or infrequent use of the word, then you use italics.

If it's a word that is used frequently throughout the text, so that the reader will quickly learn what it means, italicize the first instance only.

If it's a term that has been adopted by English speakers, don't italicize at all (obvious examples are tortilla or spaghetti). I think antipasta may fall into this category, while primi and secondi have not. If you're not sure whether a particular word has been absorbed in this manner, just look for it in an English-language dictionary. If it's in there, no italics necessary.

One other thing. I'm not sure about the grandmother using the term amore for the granddaughter. Italian has separate terms for romantic love and familial love and amore is generally used in conjunction with romantic love. (I once had a very confusing conversation with an Italian friend who was super-excited that her boyfriend had said "I love you," (Ti amo). Two weeks prior he had also said "I love you," (Ti voglio bene). At the time my language skills weren't good enough to understand the difference and I was extremely confused as to why she would be newly-excited over a repeat of the same thing. (It also didn't help that she translated both phrases the same way, lol).

FWIW I may be completely wrong and "Amore" may be used commonly between grandparents and grandchildren. During the time I lived in Italy most of my acquaintences were single young adults, so I didn't see a lot of family interactions, but I'd double-check just to be certain.

Lizzie7800 · Dec 26, 2014

Tazlima said:
I'm not 100% positive, but I believe the standard procedure is that if it's a one-off or infrequent use of the word, then you use italics.

If it's a word that is used frequently throughout the text, so that the reader will quickly learn what it means, italicize the first instance only.

If it's a term that has been adopted by English speakers, don't italicize at all (obvious examples are tortilla or spaghetti). I think antipasta may fall into this category, while primi and secondi have not. If you're not sure whether a particular word has been absorbed in this manner, just look for it in an English-language dictionary. If it's in there, no italics necessary.

One other thing. I'm not sure about the grandmother using the term amore for the granddaughter. Italian has separate terms for romantic love and familial love and amore is generally used in conjunction with romantic love. (I once had a very confusing conversation with an Italian friend who was super-excited that her boyfriend had said "I love you," (Ti amo). Two weeks prior he had also said "I love you," (Ti voglio bene). At the time my language skills weren't good enough to understand the difference and I was extremely confused as to why she would be newly-excited over a repeat of the same thing. (It also didn't help that she translated both phrases the same way, lol).

FWIW I may be completely wrong and "Amore" may be used commonly between grandparents and grandchildren. During the time I lived in Italy most of my acquaintences were single young adults, so I didn't see a lot of family interactions, but I'd double-check just to be certain.

Thank you! That's helpful! My husband is Spanish and they use the derivative sometimes, I just assumed it would be the same in Italy. I will definitely check that out!

blacbird · Dec 26, 2014

What Lizzie said. English is a sponge language; we absorb everydamnthing. For words derived from other languages, like tortilla, bungalow, raccoon, pasta, there's no point in italicizing. If the word is less well-known or less widely-adopted, then italics are appropriate. But it's a wide gray area.

caw

Orianna2000 · Dec 26, 2014

Italics are used to point out, "Yes, this word is foreign, so it's okay if you don't know what it means." Therefore, italicize the first instance of a foreign word, but only if it's unfamiliar to English audiences. If it's foreign, but commonly used in English (like deja vu, for instance), you don't need to do anything to it.

Make sure the word is understandable through context, or else give a subtle explanation. You don't want to confuse anyone with unfamiliar words. Like, I might say in my novel, "A pair of gendarmes stood at the door." If you don't know what a gendarme is, you might be wondering whether they're door-to-door salesmen, or beggars, or what. Gendarmes are actually a specific type of police officer, so I would need to give some clue to help readers figure it out.

italics for foreign words?

Lizzie7800

Tazlima

Lizzie7800

blacbird

Orianna2000

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