mangiarsi le parole

Italian

Alternative forms

• mangiare le parole

Etymology

Literally, “to eat one's words”. Compare French manger ses mots.

Verb

mangiàrsi le parole (first-person singular present mi màngio le parole, first-person singular past historic mi mangiài le parole, past participle mangiàto le parole)

1. (idiomatic) to swallow one's words; to mumble

   Synonym: borbottare

   • 2013, chapter 4, in F. Scott Fitzgerald, translated by Ferruccio Russo, Il Grande Gatsby [The Great Gatsby], Edizioni Scientifiche e Artistiche, page 95:

     Aveva accelerato sulla frase «ho studiato a Oxford» - si mangiava le parole o inciampava su di esse - come se già prima gli avessero dato noie.

     He hurried the phrase "educated at Oxford," or swallowed it or choked on it as though it had bothered him before.

     (literally, “He had sped up on the sentence "I studied at Oxford" - he swallowed his words or tripped over them - as if they already in the past had bothered him.”)