The curious link between language, parsley and Gwyneth Paltrow
Some words behave like parsley in Italian cooking: they pop up everywhere. As an Italian translator and Italian language teacher, I’m always intrigued by these “parsley words” and how differently they work across languages. In this post, I look at a few English and Italian favourites — from lovely to bello to the slightly tricky exciting — and how their meanings shift in ways that can surprise learners and translators alike.
In Italian we say that when something crops up everywhere it’s “come il prezzemolo” — like parsley — because parsley is such a common and often-used herb in Italian cuisine. You may argue that basil seems to be everywhere in Italian dishes, but parsley is more versatile and suitable for a wider variety of recipes.
People can be “come il prezzemolo” too and appear everywhere, especially when you’re not particularly keen to see them, although the expression usually carries a tinge of affection.
And of course, certain words can metaphorically be like parsley as well. They jump into every other sentence because they’re deeply entrenched in a language, in a culture, or simply in the fashion of the day.
You may be so used to these “parsley words” in your own language that you hardly notice how often they appear, while at the same time spotting frequent repetitions in a different language. Which is exactly what happened to me when I first moved to England many years ago and was still getting used to my new language.
One of these words was “lovely”. Everything could potentially be described as lovely: people, the weather, books, films, buildings, songs, pets, jumpers, chocolates — absolutely everything. Pens, mugs and street signs were sometimes lovely, as well as the gesture of a shop assistant giving you change, a toddler successfully using a potty, or someone’s ability to do ten consecutive press-ups at the gym.
As a beginner English learner, I was translating the word literally in my head and took it very seriously — as a declaration of love for what appeared, at times, to be fairly undeserving entities.
Until I realised that the “love” in lovely does not imply deep and endless emotional attachment to a mundane object like an apple. It’s basically just the equivalent of bello or buono, also very much “parsley words” in Italian.
Bello, especially, is everywhere — and what makes this adjective even more mind-boggling for someone learning Italian are its seemingly endless gender- and number-related permutations: bello, bella, bel, begli, belle, bei, and even bell’. It means “beautiful”, of course, but it’s very often used as “nice” in general (una bella gita, un bel viaggio, un bel piatto di pasta). Or “good” in a moral sense (una bella iniziativa, una bella persona). Or sometimes, as in un bel disastro or un bell’idiota, it reinforces the negative side of a situation — much like “a right disaster” or “a proper idiot” in English.
Going back to my initial perception of parsley words in English, another ubiquitous one to my ears as a non-native speaker was “exciting”. Not as hardworking or multitasking as lovely, but still used for a wide range of things — generally experiences or abstract concepts rather than physical objects: trips, cities, propositions, weeks and weekends, evenings, ideas, pieces of art, new discoveries and breakthroughs.
Unlike bello, which often corresponds neatly to lovely, with exciting we need to be a bit more flexible and creative. An exciting trip could be un viaggio emozionante; an exciting idea un’idea entusiasmante; an exciting exhibition una mostra imperdibile; an exciting city una città affascinante. “Exciting” in Italian can be all of that, plus sorprendente, straordinario, stupefacente, to mention just a few options.
The word eccitante is what first comes up when you look up “exciting” in a bilingual dictionary. It does look and sound closer to the English, but it should be used sparingly. In fact, a lot more sparingly than it currently is, as its original meaning refers to substances or situations causing physical or physiological stimulation.
Including of a sexual nature.
Which finally brings me to Gwyneth Paltrow. She was recently interviewed during the promotion of her role in the film Marty Supreme with Timothée Chalamet. Asked how her children felt watching their mother engaging in on-set amorous scenes with her screen partner, she replied that her daughter found it all “fun and exciting”.
This works perfectly well in English, but translating it literally as “divertente ed eccitante” would be slightly unfortunate, given the context. Something like emozionante, on the other hand, would capture the meaning without the awkwardness.
Moral of the story?
Words matter — even those parsley words which, because they seem to be everywhere, we stop examining properly and use on autopilot. Whether you’re translating into Italian or learning Italian from scratch, it’s always worth following the recipe closely: check whether that word is really the right ingredient, and if it is, make sure you’re adding just the right amount.
