Common Italian expression
| Pronunciation | |
| Literal translation | To be born with a shirt on |
| English translation | To be born with a silver spoon in your mouth |
| Meaning | To be a very lucky person, to be born in a wealthy family |
Examples
| Non sono nato con la camicia. La fortuna non è mia amica! | I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Luck is not my friend! |
| Alessandro è nato con la camicia. Non ha mai dovuto faticare in vita sua. | Alessandro was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He never had to work hard in his life. |
Where does this idiom come from?
There are two possible origins for this idiom. The first dates back to a time when it was traditional for close relatives to give a shirt to a newborn baby to wear after the baptism ceremony. The gift was worth a fortune, and not everyone could afford it, so babies who were gifted a shirt had an advantage in life because they were backed by a rich family.
On a less likely possibility, this idiom may have originated from babies who were delivered with an intact amniotic sac. The sac would act as a “shirt”. This is an exceptional occurrence, so it’s thought that babies born this way are very, very lucky.
Related lessons
- nascere (to be born)
- camicia (shirt)
- con (preposition)
- definite articles
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