Common Italian expression
Pronunciation | |
Literal translation | To gild the pill |
English translation | To sugarcoat it |
Meaning | To want to talk about something and make it sound more acceptable |
Examples
Non c’è bisogno di indorare la pillola. Vai dritto al punto. | No need to sugarcoat it. Just get straight to the point. |
Luca ha paura di risultare offensivo e tende a indorare la pillola. | Luca is afraid of being insulting and tends to sugarcoat it. |
Where does this idiom come from?
Ancient medicines that were good for our bodies often had a bitter taste. Swallowing them was a challenge! We can count on artificial flavorings now, but back then, nothing was added to the concoction to make it easier to swallow. So people had an idea: they took to sprinkling the ingredients with another sweet ingredient to make them more palatable.
This sweet ingredient was usually a mixture of sugar, licorice, and honey that was golden in color. Bad news is as hard to swallow as a bitter pill. To make it easier to swallow, we “sugarcoat” it.
Related lessons
- indorare (to coat with gold)
- oro (gold)
- pillola (pill)
- definite articles
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