Friday, June 15, 2012

Melamangio

Le ortolane greengrocers, corso Mazzini, LivornoIn Italian an “ortolano” may be a greengrocer selling vegetables or a market-gardener who grew them. “Le ortolane” is the female plural form of the above and the name of a shop in “Corso Mazzini”.Melamangio greengrocers, via Gramsci, LivornoA bit of wordplay in this fruits and vegetable shop sign. If you spell the writing “Me la mangio” it would be I eat her, which is not necessarily an anthropophagous statement in Italian, because everything has a gender and apples, along with many other fruits, are female. Otherwise “Mela mangio” is literally (I) apple eat, which it is not correct but may even works for a kid or a very hungry tourist.

11 comments:

Luis Gomez said...

Love this post and your explanation!

Anonymous said...

:) I try to eat more fruits. Years though since last an apple. Please have a good Friday.

Michelle said...

That first advert is very eye appealing. Thank you for the explanation!

Randy said...

Looks like my kind of market.

cieldequimper said...

Whichever shop works for me. I love fruit and veg.

Dina said...

Any excuse is good for a language lesson. And I even learned the fancy word for cannibal.

Cezar and Léia said...

It reminds me that it's Friday and I need to go to the market to shop some fruits!
The sign in this store is adorable, very creative!
Léia

Unknown said...

Totally different but cool!

Arianna said...

Con le mele se ne possono dire quasi come con i fiori! Ciao, Arianna

PerthDailyPhoto said...

The first shot works for me VP, vibrant and the image says it all!

Traveling Hawk said...

It's also easy to pronounce and to retain.