Buonanotte

Italian word of the day

Origin	From the Italian buona + notte
Translation	Good night
IPA pronunciation	/ˈbwoːna ˈnotte/

If you are lazy enough, you can drop the buona part and just say…

Buona notte e sogni d’oro

When Italians wish someone a good night, they say buona notte e sogni d’oro, which literally means good night and golden dreams.

You read that right: it’s golden dreams (oro is gold), not sweet dreams. Sweet is translated as dolce in Italian, but we don’t usually wish people dolci sogni.

It’s customary for family members to wish everyone living under the same roof a good night. To wish in Italian is desiderare, from desiderio, wish or desire, but the expression “to wish a good night” in Italian translates somewhat differently.

The expression is actually introduced by the verb dare, which means to give!

If you have small children and are used to kissing them good night when they go to bed, you can say:

Other meanings of buonanotte in Italian

Are there other meanings of buona notte other than good night? Yes, there are.

Buona notte al secchio is a colloquial expression that can be literally translated as “good night to the bucket”, with secchio meaning bucket.

If a project of yours is doomed to fail or there’s no way out of a problem, you can use this expression to vent your pessimism. By saying buona notte al secchio, you’re essentially saying there’s nothing left for you to do but watch it all fall apart.

This is another common expression, similar to buonanotte al secchio. Suonatore is someone who plays a musical instrument. The origin of this saying is debated, but it has the same meaning as the one above.

Did you know? There’s a song by Pooh called Buonanotte ai suonatori!

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