What does “bomber” mean in Italian slang?
Dimentico sempre i nomi quando mi presento
B1 Italian listening practice · Standard Italian · Picked for people who know some
When this speaker forgets someone’s name, he covers by calling them caro, carissimo, grande, and sometimes bomber. In football, a bomber is a prolific goal-scorer — the English word borrowed whole into Italian sports commentary. Informally, it’s spread far beyond the pitch: a fond, joking way to call someone a standout, a top performer, without needing to know their actual name.
The borrowing runs one level deeper than most English loanwords in Italian, since bomber itself is British slang for a striker before Italian picked it up. It’s a good example of how a very specific piece of sports vocabulary can drift into everyday, affectionate small talk.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this B1 Italian listening practice video?
How common in written Italian
How common in spoken Italian
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than B1. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.