punto fermo

Italian

Etymology

Literally, “fixed point”.

Noun

punto fermo m (plural punti fermi)

1. fixed or ever-present factor; constant
   • 2020, Barack Obama, chapter 12, in Chicca Galli, Paolo Lucca, Giuseppe Maugeri, transl., Una terra promessa [A Promised Land], Garzanti Libri:

     Era un vecchio trucco, mi dissi, il genere di gioco di prestigio retorico ormai divenuto ovunque un punto fermo degli opinionisti conservatori, a prescindere dal tema in questione: prendere il linguaggio un tempo utilizzato dai diseredati per descrivere un qualche male della società e ribaltarlo completamente.

     It was a familiar trick, I thought to myself, the kind of rhetorical sleight of hand that had become a staple of conservative pundits everywhere, whatever the issue: taking language once used by the disadvantaged to highlight a societal ill and turning it on its ear.

     (literally, “It was an old trick, I told myself, the type of rhetorical conjuring trick that had by now become a constant of conservative pundits, regardless of the topic in question: taking language once used by the have-nots to describe some ill in society and reversing it completely.”)

2. period, full stop