Common Italian expression
| Pronunciation | |
| Literal translation | To plant in ace (it has a horrible sound, I know) |
| English translation | To leave somebody behind, to ditch someone |
| Meaning | To suddenly abandon against one’s will |
Piantare comes from pianta, plant. It can mean “to plant” or “to dump”, depending on context.
Examples
| Il mio fidanzato mi ha piantato in asso per andare al bar con gli amici! | My boyfriend ditched me to go to the bar with his friends! |
| Ho piantato tutte le piantine di pomodori. | I planted all the tomato seedlings. |
Where does this idiom come from?
To understand the meaning of this idiom, we must first talk about Greek mythology, la mitologia greca. More specifically, the myth of the lovers Ariadne and Theseus. After killing the Minotaur, Theseus and Ariadne traveled to the island of Naxos, Nasso in Italian. Here, Theseus left Ariadne in Naxos while she slept. The god Dionysus later found Ariadne and married her.
So the idiom started out as piantare in Nasso, “to dump [sb] in Naxos”, which later turned into “piantare in asso”. Aces have nothing to do with it!
Related lessons
- piantare (to plant)
- asso (ace)
- in (preposition)
- prepositions
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