Under Where?

[darkerhorse]

In Italian, is there a different way to say "underwear" for men as opposed to for women?

Many years ago, I stayed at a small facility in the area of the Vatican run by nuns. They only spoke Italian. They normally didn't accept individuals - only groups - but they let me stay. I'm not sure if they really accepted males either.

Anyway, I needed laundry done - basically socks and underwear.

I intended to say, in Italian, that "I needed by whites washed, my socks and underwear". The nun blushed and got all embarrassed.

I always wondered if I had said "my panties" by mistake or if the nun was just shy.

She ended up sending me to a dry cleaners down the corner. She wrote down directions to a place called "Angelo's" only a short walk away. When I couldn't find where it was I asked someone for help. They spoke English and laughed. The directions read "at the corner" ("angolo") not "Angelo's".

I also recall trying to order in Italian at a nice restaurant in Rome. The waiter played along but finally he lost patience and broke into English. I couldn't even understand "coperto" at that time.

I've gotten a little better with the Italian language over the years but I still can only understand or speak the very basics.

So, what about "underwear"?

[liviomoreno]

Underwear = "biancheria (intima)", no difference between male and female.

[darkerhorse]

I said something like "mudans". I know an Italian word wouldn't end in an "s" but that's what I recalled hearing back home. I don't know if that was for men's or women's.

[darkerhorse]

I just remembered the word "mudan" is in Lou Monte's song "What Did Washington Say (When He Crossed the Delaware)" so it must be okay for men's.

[Tessa78]

From this site:
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=79228

"Give me liberty or give me death," these words will never die,
"We have just begun to fight" is a famous battle cry,
But what I really want to know ain't written anywhere:
What did Washington say when he crossed the Delaware?

"Mme faccia 'nu fridd', mo tengo 'nu famm',
Mme faccia 'nu fridd', mo tengo 'nu dann'."
[where "fridd'" is pronounced "freed" and is dialect for "freddo," or cold. Rough translation:"I'm freezing, I'm hungry, I'm freezing, I hurt all over..."]
"Oh, Martha, Martha, I'm no coming home tonight,
Martha, Martha, no tarantella tonight."

T.

[darkerhorse]

Yes, we mistakenly heard "me take-a mundan" for "mo tengo 'nu dann".

I think he was Napolitano. He jokingly referred to Italian as "Eye-tralian".

My family is Sicilian. I just found the Sicilian word "mutanni" for underwear. Maybe that's where I got it from. It's feminine gender but I don't know if that means the definition is women's underwear (panties).

If so, imagine a grown man asking a nun if he could wash his "panties" in her washing machine. I think it was the Pope Paul VI guest house.

In any case, the nun blushed and she wouldn't let me use their washing machine so she directed me to dry cleaners nearby.

[darkerhorse]

I remember pulling out the top of my undershirt to show her what I meant. For whites, I would have said "bianca" or "bianco". I wouldn't have known the word "biancheria".

[PippoM]

If you said something like "mutande", it would be "panties", so I think that's why the nun blushed!