minestra
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Italian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From minestrare (“to serve, prepare (as in soup)”), from Latin ministrāre.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]minestra f (plural minestre, diminutive minestrìna, augmentative minestróne, pejorative minestráccia or minestrùccia)
- soup
- pasta (boiled and eaten with a sauce)
- Synonyms: pasta asciutta, pastasciutta
Usage notes
[edit]- In the Italian culinary tradition of a multi-course dinner this is usually the first course (not counting antipasto, if any). As a soup, it tends to be lighter than zuppa and with smaller pieces than minestrone.
- In most settings just ”minestra” will be understood to be a soup-like dish, but the term is also used to refer to minestra asciutta, which is a pasta dish.
Derived terms
[edit]- o mangi la minestra o salti la finestra (“beggars can't be choosers”, literally “either you eat the soup or you jump (out of) the window”)
Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- → Alemannic German: Manestre
Further reading
[edit]- minestra in Collins Italian-English Dictionary
- minestra in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
- minestra in Aldo Gabrielli, Grandi Dizionario Italiano (Hoepli)
- minestra in garzantilinguistica.it – Garzanti Linguistica, De Agostini Scuola Spa
- minèstra in Dizionario Italiano Olivetti, Olivetti Media Communication
- minèstra in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana