Looking for a specific Italian word

May 8, 2010 8:53 PM

An Italian friend of mine once taught me a word that means, essentially, "being lazy in a way that actually creates more effort for yourself in the long run." Since this so often applies to me, I really want to know what this word is again.
posted by zachawry to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Some variation of pigro? Might poke around the derived terms on wiktionary to see if one of them looks familiar. Or for sfaccendato and its synonyms.

(IANI)
posted by cj_ at 9:44 PM on May 8, 2010

scansafatica? svogliato?
posted by aqsakal at 11:38 PM on May 8, 2010

(IAI) nothing coming to mind actually. What's posted above are all synonims for 'lazy'.
(We have many)
posted by _dario at 3:50 AM on May 9, 2010 [2 favorites]

I would love a word like that.
In English, I know the term's "lazy man's load"which is a too heavy load meant to avoid a second trip, and "lazy man's thread" which is a too long thread in sewing to avoid extra knots and re-threading of the needle. These things often end poorly.
posted by SLC Mom at 1:36 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

its slang, but
schienare (as in schiena = back) is what you do when you perch on the back of someone else who is doing the work... lots of work for them, but (ultimately) more work for you (the mooch) to hang on in the long run, even more so when your reputation comes back to haunt you.
posted by iiniisfree at 11:37 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm going to guess that it wasn't an Italian word but rather something in your friend's regional "dialect". Rich words like that are often more likely to be found in a local dialect anyway, and would explain why another Italian wouldn't necessarily be aware of it (because he/she does not speak that dialect). If you can remember where your Italian friend hails from, that might be useful.
posted by Deathalicious at 6:40 AM on May 10, 2010