#Salute meaning italian how to

The word or phrase used in different languages for “Cheers” has various translations, but they all carry the same meaning. You may be wondering why we do it in the first place. Saying “cheers” and clinking glasses is one of those time-honored traditions that we do without thinking.

#Salute meaning italian how to

We’ve compiled 35 different ways to say cheers in a fun infographic (below), so you always know how to say it in other languages. Cheers in different languagesīefore you travel somewhere new, why not learn a new way to say cheers in the language of your destination? You’ll fit right in at the table and maybe even make a few new friends. But each country has a different way to say cheers, spoken in their own language. In the United States and the United Kingdom, we say “Cheers!” as a drinking toast. Raising a glass for a toast is a universal experience, but it comes in many different languages. It was however, the Italians who loved it the most, probably because of the fact it sounded so much like the tinning of glasses hitting each other.Īs in Italian the “ch” sound equals the English “k”, chin chin became cin cin and voilà! Italy’s most popular toasting word was created.Do you know how to say cheers in Italian? How about Spanish? Check out the infographic below to see all the ways you can use another word for cheers when drinking. Needless to say, the new word became a hit around Europe’s ports, where it was introduced by the officers of the Royal British Army. It seems cin cin finds its origins in the Chinese word ch’ing, “you’re welcome”, often repeated twice in a row, hence giving us ch’ing ch’ing. In Victorian times, the version chin chin became popular among sailors, travellers and traders using pidgin English to communicate with one another, especially in the Canton area of China. History tells us cin cin comes from very far indeed, which explains its peculiar, eastern-like allure. Let us cut it short, though: Italy’s best known toasting expression remains the exotic sounding cin cin. How the verb went from churches to taverns remains a bit of a mistery. Apparently, people used to say it to priests when, after finishing mass, they went back into the sacristy. Toasting is an ancient habit that the Romans inherited from the Greeks (qdrips/Flickr) And what about cin cin?Īnother very common Latin expression was prosit, third person singular of the subjunctive of prodesse, which we can translate as “may this be helpful”. Yeah, the Romans knew how to live life to the full. If you really want to do as the Romans used to do, though, rise your glass while saying propino tibi salutem plenis faucibus… something on the lines of “I am gulping this down to your health!” Other well wishing formulas our forefathers used while drinking? Bene vos, bene nos, bene te, bene me, which roughly correspond to modern Italian alla vostra, alla nostra, alla tua, alla mia (to ye, to us, to you, to me). Apparently, the first way to announce a brindisi in Italy was the Latin propino. The Romans, in fact, inherited the habit from the Greeks and used to initially refer to the act as bibere Graeco more, that is, drinking as the Greeks do. Of course, the world started toasting its life away much earlier than modern languages appeared, as the habit to wish health to friends and family while rising drinks to the sky can be found even in the Bible.Ĭlear references to it come from Classical times: written proof can be found in the Iliad and the Odissey, but even more in the work of historians and archaeologists, who pieced together how the people of Greece and, later on, Rome, already knew about the well wishing properties of having a glass in honor of something or someone. When the time to celebrate comes and you anglophones make a toast, we in Italy “facciamo un brindisi.” Apparently, the word comes from the German bring dir’s and reached Italy through the Spanish brindis. What should I say: you can take the historian out of a dusty library, but you cannot take history out of an historian’s mind…īelow Cin Cin ( Song ) you can hear the pronunciation at minute 1:00 I know, I know. Here I go again with some sort of history article. So, instead of getting on to write an article about the many – often dialectal, often x-rated – alternatives to “ cin cin” in Italy, I decided to go down the road of explaining the reasons why we Italians do toast in certain ways. Celebrate with a toast: cin cin! (Aleks_kuntz/Flickr)Īnd in Italy? Well… Italy has a good few expressions to use, but let us face the truth, the majority of them are too crass to be reported, although I am pretty sure that any Italian you come across will be more than happy to sing along a couple of “Osteria numero…” toasting refrains for you, complete of translation.