pulviscolo
Italian
Alternative forms
- polviscolo (uncommon)
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin pulvisculus, diminutive of pulvis (“dust”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /pulˈvi.sko.lo/
- Rhymes: -iskolo
- Hyphenation: pul‧vì‧sco‧lo
Noun
pulviscolo m (plural pulviscoli)
- (collective) particulate matter suspended in the air
- (collective, literary) specks of floating dust illuminated by light
- 2020 September, Antonio Pennacchi, “Capitolo secondo [Second Chapter]”, in La strada del mare (in Italian, Venetian, English, and French), Milan: Mondadori Libri S.p.A., →ISBN, page 283:
- Non lo ha fatto nemmeno finire: «Come? Io sto a spiegare e tu pensi ai mondi nel pulviscolo?»
- She didn't even let him finish. "What? I'm explaining, and you're thinking about the worlds on the specks of dust?"
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- (in the plural, rare) a myriad of single particles
- (collective, figurative) a group of very small incoherent entities
Further reading
- pulviscolo in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana