Common Italian expression
| Literal translation | To be born with a shirt on |
| Meaning | To be a very lucky person, to be born in a wealthy family |
| IPA pronunciation | /ˈnaʃere kon la kaˈmiːtʃa/ |
Nascere con la camicia
To be born with a silver spoon in your mouth
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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