It's autumn, the trees begin to strip, the landscapes are tinged with new colors. The reds, yellows and oranges are the stars of this period. In the cities, the crunch of fallen leaves is the sound carpet of the pavements. In the air the scent of roasted chestnuts begins to smell and the stalls of the fairs are teeming with pumpkins. And then there are the Italian proverbs, those of autumn. They animate our language at any time of the year but it is precisely in this season that they find their birthplace.
Italian proverbs and fruits
Among the most fascinating aspects of the human verb is the curious, and often hidden, origin of some expressions. How many times have we happened to say things like: "I got you in a chestnut!". Or to exclaim: "That really has an empty pumpkin!". And again: "It is appropriate to remove the chestnuts from the fire". The classic autumn fruits are the protagonists of these Italian proverbs. But what is their story? When we catch someone who is doing some prank, it comes naturally to us to say that we have caught him in a nutshell. The reason is found in the word brown, a term once widespread to indicate the fruit of the chestnut. But another meaning also corresponds to the same di mistake, mistake.
It is no coincidence that once upon a time people said: "I got you in brown!". Then there is another saying that has to do with chestnuts. It is used in singular situations. For example, when you expose yourself or others to a risk in order to take advantage of a certain circumstance. And then we exclaim a nice: "Remove the chestnuts from the fire!". This time it is necessary to make a foray into the world of fairy tales to find out their meaning. Jean De La Fontaine wrote about a monkey who, enticed by the scent of roasted chestnuts, he asked the cat to remove them from the heat. The kitten ended up scorching his paw, to comply with the request. Then there are all the aphorisms about the pumpkin that deserve special attention. Our journey into the world of Italian autumn proverbs continues.
Pumpkin time
Queen of a party that takes place right in the middle of autumn, la pumpkin he was already the protagonist of a distant past. Today the big orange fruit immediately makes us think of Halloween. But you don't need to go overseas to find out more. Instead, we can investigate comfortably by staying within our country. The Romans, in fact, used the pumpkin as a container to hide valuables.
At the time the salt was something really precious, so much so that it is used as a bargaining chip. And what do we still do with valuables today? We are looking for a hiding place, a way to keep them. So it was also for the Romans, whose practice consisted precisely in put the salt inside a pumpkin emptied of the pulp. We could define it a kind of safe from antiquity. And it is precisely from this use that evergreen proverbs derive. So they said: "That one has no salt in his gourd!". Or again: "What an empty pumpkin!". It goes without saying that the why becomes easy to understand. As well as the opposite "Having a lot of salt in your gourd", synonymous with intelligence and mental acuity.
