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- Topic: Italian >
- "La banana è cattiva."
47 Comments
126
"rotten" translates as marcia. Yeah, cattivo can be used for bad tasting food, but I'm Italian and when I read "La banana è cattiva" I thought of an evil sentient banana. Personally I'd prefer La banana ha un cattivo sapore = the banana tastes bad
69
Many years ago I mistakenly used to interpret "cattivo" as simply "naughty". Now I can't get the idea of a naughty banana out of my head!
1065
Here lies the body of our dear Anna, done to death by a banana. It wasn't the fruit that made her go but the skin of the thing that laid her low.
"Cattivo" comes from latin "capitivus" (prisoner), in turn deriving from "capere" (to catch). It used to mean "prisoner", like "captive" in english. It has not this meaning anymore, though some words like "cattività" (captivity) still carry this meaning.
So why a "prisoner" is bad? Most probably it comes from latin expression "captivus diaboli" (prisoner of the devil).
862
I got, the banana is evil -- um, evil?? How about spoiled, which was not accepted as an answer :(