minestra

Italian

Etymology

From minestrare (“to serve, prepare (as in soup)”), from Latin ministrāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /miˈnɛs.tra/
• Rhymes: -ɛstra
• Hyphenation: mi‧nè‧stra

Noun

minestra f (plural minestre, diminutive minestrìna, augmentative minestróne, pejorative minestráccia or minestrùccia)

1. soup
2. pasta (boiled and eaten with a sauce)

   Synonyms: pasta asciutta, pastasciutta

Usage notes

• 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

• 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

• minestraio
• minestrare
• minestrina
• minestrone

Descendants

• → Alemannic German: Manestre

Further reading

• 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

Anagrams

• mestrina, sarmenti, smentirà, stermina

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /miˈnɛs.tɾɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /miˈnɛs.tɾɐ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /miˈnɛʃ.tɾɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /miˈnɛs.tɾa/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /miˈnɛʃ.tɾɐ/

• Hyphenation: mi‧nes‧tra

Noun

minestra f (plural minestras)

1. (Brazil) A trick or method used to achieve certain goals.
2. (cooking) italian soap

Further reading

• “minestra”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025