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- Author, Dalia Ventura
- Author title, BBC News World
“In Sicily we have a magic word with its own flavor: Futtitini“says Italian actor Giusepppe Capodicasa in a video from BBC reel.
“It’s not a bad word, it’s a blessing,” he explains.
Let’s remember that in Sicily, like the rest of Italy, Italian is spoken, but it sounds different because behind it there is centuries of history woven into the language.
Before Italian was adopted as the country’s common language, Sicilians already spoke Sicilian, a Romance language marked by the successive conquests and domination of the island: Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Spaniards… each left their mark in accent and words.
When standard Italian began to establish itself in the 19th century, this basis was not erased, but rather mixed with it.
That is why, even though someone like Capodicasa, who describes himself as “100% Sicilian,” speaks Italian, one can notice tones, phrases and words that come from this ancient mixture.
Futtitinni is one of those words.
One that, according to Capodicasa, contains “a philosophy of life, a way of understanding our existence.”
“Futtitinni…how beautiful it sounds,” says the Sicilian philosopher Pietro Briguglio, pronouncing the word with enthusiasm.
“When you say it, you release the burden you had and stay light.”
The term is very present in common usage because “it lends itself to use in many situations,” says Briguglio.
It could be understood as “don’t worry too much”, “let it go”, and its meaning varies between “don’t get bitter”, “don’t get entangled” – or the Mexican “don’t get stuck”, the Colombian “don’t be complicated”, the Caribbean “don’t get too excited” or the Southern “don’t make a drama”.
But according to Capodicasa, “It’s more nuanced, more elegant.”
Elegant?
The root of futtitinni is the Sicilian verb futtiriwhich isn’t particularly elegant: it’s a vulgar way of saying “copulate.”
It comes from Latin Futurewhich in Spanish evolved into “fucking,” the colloquial way of talking about sexual relationships that can still be heard in Spain.
image source, Getty Images
In Sicilian, as occurs in many Romance languages with verbs of sexual origin, futtiri Depending on the context, it has been expanded to include figurative meanings such as cheating, harassing, stealing or taking liberties.
Thus futtitinni has a nuance between carefree and a little irreverent, something like “I don’t give a fuck”, but with that Sicilian tone that makes it more philosophical than aggressive.
It’s not about the fact that nothing matters, nor about avoiding problems or responsibilities, nor even about resignation.
“Futtitinni “It’s not superficiality,” Capodicasa clarifies. “It is the ability to go through life situations with awareness and ease.”
In such cases, it serves to comfort a friend in the face of disappointment, to cope with an economic setback, or simply to put an everyday incident into perspective.
It is also an existential tool that serves to separate the essential from the superfluous, so as not to endure every setback and to put the essential in the foreground.
Futtitinni It involves a way of facing adversity with lightness, dignity and even humor… a sense that the Sicilians have greatly developed.
As the Roman politician and writer Cicero did in the 1st century BC. BC stated. C. the Sicilians were “an intelligent race, but suspicious and endowed with a wonderful sense of humor.”
“No matter how terrible a situation is, Sicilians always have a funny comment about it,” he added.
This characteristic has accompanied them throughout their 3,000-year history and was often difficult to endure.
Just observe by adopting a reflective attitude Il ItalianamericanoThey were able to resist the constant temptation to become tragic figures.
This attitude is expressed in the admonition that Sicilians use when things become too overwhelming: futtitinni.
And although the word has existed in the Sicilian dialect for generations, it has experienced a remarkable resurgence in recent years.
Meme contests, t-shirts that say “Futtitinni“, articles and blogs that save its meaning as “pedagogy of the essential”.
Futtitinia revolution
image source, Getty Images
He clarifies that this art of discrimination consists of “distinguishing between what is urgent and what is noisy, between what edifies us and what consumes us.”
He explains that when a Sicilian says futtitinnioften says:
“Do not allow into your heart that which does not deserve to live there.”
“Don’t give power to those who want to take your breath away.”
For Mazzarella, not only has the traditional term not lost its relevance, but in a time when everything requires attention and “every opinion turns into war, every imperfection into failure (…”), futtitinni has become a revolution.”
It invites you to practice “good detachment”, not to worry about the periphery and to concentrate on what is really important.
“Did your partner leave you? … Maybe it wasn’t ideal. Did you lose your job? … Take it as a new beginning,” illustrates Capodicasa.
“There are those who do yoga, meditate and breathe with their diaphragm. There are those who go to India to find themselves,” says Capodicasa.
“In Sicily we do it all with a single word.
“It is said that an old wise man, while explaining the laws of Sicilian philosophy to a young student, stopped at a certain moment, looked him in the eyes and said:
“Boy, if you can’t change what makes you suffer, then futtitinni“.
Perhaps, when pronouncing the word, this wise man made the typical gesture that usually accompanies it to emphasize it: he raised his hand from bottom to top, as if throwing his worries into the air.
The intention is to relax and stop focusing on the negative.
“Life stresses you out, take it easy.”
“Getting stuck in a traffic jam… patience”…
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