A few weeks ago, an 8-year-old Italian kid named Matteo “invented” a new word when he described a flower as “petaloso” (which in English means “full of petals”). This word doesn’t officially exist in the Italian dictionary, but it grammatically makes sense, because it’s a combination of “petalo” (“petal”) and the suffix “-oso” (“full of”).The teacher, Margherita Aurora, when she saw the word, she thought that maybe Matteo had just invented a new word, so she and the boy wrote a card to the Accademia della Crusca (the institution that oversees the use of the Italian language) to ask it they could include the word in the dictionary. The institution said that the word is well formed so it could be used in the Italian language, but to officially be part of it lots of people have to use it and understand its meaning. Also, the Accademia encouraged Matteo saying that if he could manage to spread the word, then “petaloso” will have become an Italian word.
Matteo and his teacher were very content, and Margherita decided to start a movement to make “petaloso” a widely known and used word. He wrote a post on Facebook that has been shared more than 80.000 times. On Twitter, the hashtag #petaloso was used 40.000 times, becoming the top trending topic in Italy. Even the Accademia retweeted some messages using the word, and the Zanichelli publishing house (which publishes one of most widely referenced Italian dictionaries) said that will include the word in its next edition. Also, the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi congratulated the kid.Now, “petaloso” is on its way to become an official Italian word thanks to Matteo, his teacher and the power of social media.
PERSONAL OPINION:
In my opinion, I think this is a magnificent thing. I think it’s astonishing what the Internet and social media can do: in this case, Internet has helped to introduce a new word to the Italian language. This makes me think and consider about the power of the Internet and how easy is for us to use it.
In my opinion, I think this is a magnificent thing. I think it’s astonishing what the Internet and social media can do: in this case, Internet has helped to introduce a new word to the Italian language. This makes me think and consider about the power of the Internet and how easy is for us to use it.
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