Latte

Italian word of the day

Pronunciation
English translation	Milk
Origin	From the Latin word lacte, “milk”

It is a masculine uncountable noun, so it has no plural form: il latte (definite, the milk), del latte (indefinite, some milk).

Examples

Nella bottiglia è rimasta una piccola quantità di latte.	There’s a tiny amount of milk left in the bottle.
Potrei avere un bicchiere di latte, per favore?	May I have a glass of milk, please?
Elena beve latte ogni mattina.	Elena drinks milk every morning.

Latte macchiato is what you have to ask for to get a latte in an Italian café! If you ask for a plain latte, you will probably get… a glass of milk. Latte macchiato literally means “stained milk”.

Related words

The latte di mucca, literally “milk of cow”, is also commonly called latte vaccino, from the Latin vacca, “cow”. This is where the English word vaccine comes from!

Latte di mucca	Cow milk
Latte vaccino	Cow milk

For example, you can say…

Esistono molte alternative al latte vaccino, come il latte di capra, il latte di mandorla e il latte di cocco.

There are many alternatives to cow milk, such as goat milk, almond milk and coconut milk.

Another common (and delicious) type of milk in Italy is latte di bufala, which is used to make mozzarella di bufala. Try it on your pizza!

Latte di bufala

Buffalo milk

For example, you can say…

Preferisco il latte di bufala a quello di mucca.

I prefer buffalo milk to cow milk.

Other types of milk in Italian based on the animal are:

Latte di capra	Goat milk
Latte d’asina	Donkey milk
Latte di pecora	Sheep milk

For example, you can say…

Di cosa sa il latte di capra?	What does goat milk taste like?
Il pecorino è un derivato del latte di pecora.	Pecorino cheese is made from sheep’s milk.

If you are a vegetarian, you can drink latte di soia, latte di mandorle or the sweet and savory latte di cocco!

Latte di soia

Soy milk

For example, you can say…

Il latte di soia è un ottimo sostituto del latte vaccino.

Soy milk is a great substitute for cow’s milk.

Latte di mandorle	Almond milk
Latte di cocco	Coconut milk

There are two common types of milk that you can find in Italian supermarkets:

Latte intero	Whole milk
Latte scremato	Skimmed milk
Latte parzialmente scremato	Partially skimmed milk

Other less common, but still widely used, types of milk in Italian are:

Latte a lunga conservazione	Long-life milk
Latte UHT	UHT milk
Latte in polvere	Milk powder
Latte artificiale	Infant formula Literally: Artificial milk
Latte arricchito con vitamine	Vitamin-enriched milk

For example, you can say…

A cosa serve il latte in polvere?	What is milk powder used for?
Compriamo sempre latte a lunga conservazione.	We always buy long-life milk.

Freshly milked milk is called latte appena munto or latte fresco di mungitura, where mungere means “to milk”.

Latte appena munto

Freshly milked milk

If you forget to put it in the fridge and the milk goes bad, you can use the verbs andare a male, “to go bad”, or scadere, “to expire”.

Latte andato a male	Spoiled milk
Latte scaduto	Expired milk
Il latte scaduto può causare problemi all’intestino.	Expired milk can cause intestinal problems.

Breast milk is called latte materno, literally “maternal milk”.

Latte materno

Breast milk

From latte comes the adjective latteo, “milky”. In fact, our galaxy, the Milky Way, is translated into Italian as…

La Via Lattea

The Milky Way

To milk, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, translates to mungere in Italian.

Mungere

To milk

Raw milk, il latte crudo, is pasteurized, pastorizzato, from pastorizzare, to kill off any pathogen that might harm us.

Pastorizzare

To pasteurize

And of course, milk can be skimmed, scremato, from the verb scremare, “to skim”.

Scremare

To skim

Milk itself can curdle, cagliarsi.

Cagliare il latte

To curdle milk

Expressions

Let’s wrap up our lesson on the meaning of latte in Italian with a few expressions and sayings featuring this word.

Dente da latte literally translates to milk tooth.

Il dente da latte

The milk tooth

Dairy products like…

• il burro (the butter)
• il formaggio (the cheese)
• la panna (the cream)
• lo yogurt (the yogurt)

are called latticini.

I latticini

The dairy products

Now for a couple of sayings featuring latte in Italian:

Piangere sul latte versato	To cry over spilled milk
Avere ancora il latte alla bocca	To be young and naïve

While piangere sul latte versato can be literally translated into English, avere ancora il latte alla bocca literally means “to still have milk on your mouth” and it’s used to address someone who is still young and naïve about life.

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