troppo

English

Etymology

From tropical +‎ -o (diminutive suffix). First used by Australian troops in tropical regions during WWII, in the sense “affected by war service in the tropics.”

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɒpəʊ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

troppo (not comparable)

1. (Australia, slang, with go) Crazy, mad, strangely behaving; especially as attributed to hot weather.

   Barry′s gone troppo and married that sheila he′s only known for two weeks.

   After three months by himself on his ‘dream’ tropical island he went troppo and smashed all the equipment.

   • 1989, Rosie Boycott, All for Love, page 163:

     ‘ […] She calls these rehearsals my singing lessons - but at least I don′t have people rushing in thinking I′ve gone troppo . . .’
     ‘Except me.’ Violet′s smile lingered as she gazed at him.

   • 2009, Paul Tapp, Disquiet - the Justifiable Homicide of an Australian Vietnam Veteran, page 121:

     For a lone Digger gone troppo, as Joe is deemed to have done, it is a realistic scenario.

   • 2016 March 15, David Dale, “John Jarratt talks new show Territory Cops and a murderous return in Wolf Creek”, in The Sydney Morning Herald‎^[1]:

     "[The Northern Territory has] got the same sort of flavour to it, probably a bit more frontier. Overall, it's the tropics and they go troppo. The beer's cold and the weather's hot and they drink too much.

Synonyms

• bonkers
• doolally, from doolally tap

Interlingua

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian troppo, and also from French trop.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtro.po/

Adverb

troppo (not comparable)

1. too much

   Synonym: nimis

Further reading

• Alexander Gode; Hugh E. Blair (1971), Interlingua: A Grammar of the International Language, 2nd edition, New York: Frederick Ungar, →ISBN

Italian

Etymology

From Early Medieval Latin troppus, borrowed from Frankish *þorp (“a cluster, agglomeration", also "collection of houses, village”), from Proto-Germanic *þurpą (“village”), from Proto-Indo-European *trab-, *treb- (“dwelling, room”). Cognate with French trop (“too much”), Piedmontese tròp/trop. More at trop, thorp and troop.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtrɔp.po/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔppo
• Hyphenation: tròp‧po

Determiner

troppo (feminine troppa, masculine plural troppi, feminine plural troppe)

1. too much, (in the plural) too many

   non mettere troppa carne al fuoco

   Don't bite off more than you can chew.

   (literally, “Don't put too much meat on the fire.”)

Pronoun

troppo (feminine troppa, masculine plural troppi, feminine plural troppe)

1. too much
2. (in the plural) too many, too many people

Adverb

troppo

1. too much, too long, too far

   allegro ma non troppo ― cheerful but not too much

Derived terms

• fin troppo

Further reading

• troppo in Bruno Migliorini et al., Dizionario d'ortografia e di pronunzia, Rai Eri, 2025
• troppo in garzantilinguistica.it – Garzanti Linguistica, De Agostini Scuola Spa
• troppo in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana