What does “languorino” mean in Italian?

Street food napoletano in giro per la città

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A2 Italian listening practice · Standard Italian · Picked for people who know a little

💡 Did you know?
un languorino
Italian food-craving word
a little pang of hunger — the peckish feeling that sends you looking for a snack

Languore is a weak, empty feeling, including the hollow one in your stomach. Shrink it to languorino and it turns affectionate and specific: the mid-morning twinge that isn’t real hunger but definitely wants a snack. The phrase to keep is mi è venuto un languorino, “I’ve got a bit peckish” — the standard, entirely socially acceptable Italian reason for eating something between meals.

The -ino is doing the work: it makes the hunger small and forgivable, the way un caffettino or un’oretta soften whatever comes next. In this Naples street-food run the languorino arrives mid-morning and is answered with a pizza a portafoglio — pizza folded in four like a wallet, which Neapolitans have long also called a libretto, “like a little book,” because you eat it leafing through the folds.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A2 Italian listening practice video?

81.6%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Italian words
Most of the words in this video are common Italian words.

How common in written Italian

77.6%
Top 1,000
81.6%
Top 2,000
92.9%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Italian

83.8%
Top 1,000
88.8%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Words for talking
This video uses words people often say in Italian.

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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