Three expressions to talk about fear in Italian

Halloween is a very famous celebration in the U.S.A. Traditionally, people dress up as creatures they use(d) to fear to make fun of them.

Here’s the word I’d like to focus my attention on in this article, fear.

Everyone fears something, it can be an illness, an animal, close spaces, mistakes, etc.

Personally, I’ve got a repulsion for spiders and bedbugs.

About spiders, I remember that one summer my husband and I were on holiday in Spain and decided to go and visit a natural park. We walked for some kilometers and then, at one point, I don’t know why, I decided to look up at the branches of the trees above us.

That was a very big mistake. Because the only thing I could see were spiders. A lot of them. Big fat horrible spiders attached to their spiderwebs ready to jump on my head.

That was the end of our walk. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t stop looking at them.

I knew I couldn’t stand there forever because my husband kept remembering me how absurd my reaction was but I didn’t trust the spiders. What if they decided they wanted to jump down and walk on my skin?

When, somehow, my husband managed to persuade me to take some steps, I had the strong feeling I couldn’t walk with my back straight, otherwise all the spiders – and their sticky spiderwebs – would have landed on my head.

Now, I consider myself a very calm, reasonable and reflexive person but that day, I swear, I couldn’t make a single step without seeming a female version of Gollum screaming. In short, me la facevo addosso dalla paura – keep on reading to discover the meaning of this Italian expression.

So, since fear is part of us, I was thinking that it could be useful for you to know some of the most common expressions to talk about fear in Italian.

CAGARSI ADDOSSO

The list of the Italian expressions to talk about fear in Italian starts with one of the most used in informal Italian, cagarsi addosso.

Literally, this expression means to shit on yourself. Idiomatically, instead, it means to scare the shit out of someone.

Ex: Quando ho visto quei ragni mi sono cagata addosso
(literal translation) When I saw those spiders, they scared the shit out of me

FARSELA SOTTO/ADDOSSO

Farsela sotto or farsela addosso are two other very common informal Italian expressions to talk about fear.

Literally they mean to pee on yourself but idiomatically they mean to wet your pants.

Ex: Quando ho visto quei ragni me la sono fatta sotto/addosso
(literal translation) When I saw those spiders, I shat my pants/wet myself

MORIRE DI PAURA

The last expression to talk about fear in Italian is morire di paura. Literally, this expression means to die of fear and idiomatically it means to scare somebody to death.

Ex: Quando ho visto quei ragni sono morta di paura
(literal translation) When I saw those spiders, they scared me to death

 

Now, try to use these three Italian expressions to talk about fear. What scares you?

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Credits

Original image by Alexas_Fotos