# Mezza Mezza



## Schrodinger's_Cat

My grand parents came from Sicily, and they always say (no matter what), *"Mezza Mezza"* if and when someone ask them, "How are you?" or "How are you doing?" I know that it means, _"to take the good with the bad"_ I'm wondering what do people say in other parts of Italy?

Thanks.


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## Poianone

"Come stai?" "Mah, *così così*"
And in English?


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## Schrodinger's_Cat

Poianone said:


> "Come stai?" "Mah, *così così*"
> And in English?


 
The most common is, "so so"


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## subtitle

I usually say "così *e* così".


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## edfnl

Noi (zona: Viterbo, nell'alto Lazio) lo diciamo comunemente.
"Come ti senti?" "Oggi sono mezza mezza".... Anche se è molto colloquiale


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## subtitle

edfnl said:


> "Come ti senti?" "Oggi sono mezza mezza"


Non l'avevo mai sentito prima... 
Quindi si usa così sia al maschile che al femminile?


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## Schrodinger's_Cat

subtitle said:


> Non l'avevo mai sentito prima...
> Quindi si usa così sia al maschile che al femminile?


 
Good point! 

Why is not at the plural form? 

I think it ought to be at the plural form because it is "prendere le cose con le buone o con le cattive" after all, right?


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## miri

Hi Ben!
It would be like "half (mezza=metà) good, half bad".
Does it make sense?


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## beccamutt

Interessante!  Non l'ho mai sentito in Italia (abitavo a Bologna ed a Firenze) ma mio nonno italiano diceva sempre *mezza mezz'.*  Era di Benevento.  Non direi, pero', che vuol dire _to take the good with the bad._  It means _so, so_ or _cosi' cosi'._


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## subtitle

I agree with miri.
"Mezza" is "half", so the literal translation should be simply "Half (good) half (bad)".


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## Angel.Aura

I think the discussion BenVitale is looking for is in the Solo Italiano Forum:
mezzo mezzo

(no english allowed )


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## Schrodinger's_Cat

My grand parents came from Palermo. Maybe it is a Sicilian interpretation of *mezza mezza* being "taking the good with the bad"

They also like to say, "smile today because tomorrow might get worse!"


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## london calling

beccamutt said:


> Interessante! Non l'ho mai sentito in Italia (abitavo a Bologna ed a Firenze) ma mio nonno italiano diceva sempre *mezza mezz'.* Era di Benevento. Yes, they use it in the south a lot! Non direi, pero', che vuol dire _to take the good with the bad._ I agree. It means _so, so_ or _cosi' cosi'._ Yes!


Sì, cioè "non sto bene, ma neanche male"....._so so_, or, as my gran would have said in reply to the question "How are things?" -  "Can't complain!" (London English).


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## BlackEagle

And here I am! A word from Sicily... the most beautiful island in the world!

Well guys, I've never heard that expression in my entire life... nor from parents and relatives, nor from friends...

Other than that, I have to agree with my Italian fellows above. It cannot mean "_to take the good with the bad_" and the like. It's definitively "Così così", and the like. Half good, half bad...


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## Schrodinger's_Cat

BlackEagle said:


> And here I am! A word from Sicily... the most beautiful island in the world!
> 
> Well guys, I've never heard that expression in my entire life... nor from parents and relatives, nor from friends...
> 
> Other than that, I have to agree with my Italian fellows above. It cannot mean "_to take the good with the bad_" and the like. It's definitively "Così così", and the like. Half good, half bad...


 
Okay. But I'm surprised. Do you speak Sicilian dialect?


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## BlackEagle

Well, I don't speak it well at all, but I hear it all the time, and I grew up here. There is certainly a chance that it is a Sicilian say I just don't know about. Another possibility is that, as time went by, many US immigrants from Italy party forgot their language and partly distorted some of its expressions. I faced this phenomenon myself many time in the US. I'll ask some friends of mine, though. I promise!


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## tj4652

BenVitale said:


> The most common is, "so so"



My favorite is "fair to middling," which is heard mostly in the American south. The expression comes from the cotton industry which classified cotton bales into grades ranging from fine to inferior. Fair and middling were the middle grades.

Tom


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## london calling

Mi dicono dalla regia che potrebbe derivare dal fancese "moitié moitié". Qualcuno lo sa? Comunque si dice anche in Campania.


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## PEGASO70

I've never heard "mezza mezza"! In Venetia we say "così così".


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## london calling

PEGASO70 said:


> I've never heard "mezza mezza"! In Venetia we say "così così".


I'm fairly sure that this is a southern Italian expression, meaning, as you rightly say, "così così". If, as my (southern Italian) husband thinks, it comes from the French (see my previous post), that would explain why you wouldn't say it in the Veneto, as the French Domination was essentially of southern Italy. The fact that it is used in Sicily and Campania is significant (Il Regno delle due Sicilie) in my opinion.

Where are all our historians?!


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## beccamutt

london calling said:


> "How are things?" - "Can't complain!" (London English).


 
We say this in AE, too!


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## Zenof

Never heard.
In Sardinia we say: _così così_ or _così e cosà_


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## beccamutt

BlackEagle said:


> Well, I don't speak it well at all, but I hear it all the time, and I grew up here. There is certainly a chance that it is a Sicilian say I just don't know about. Another possibility is that, as time went by, many US immigrants from Italy party forgot their language and partly distorted some of its expressions. I faced this phenomenon myself many time in the US. I'll ask some friends of mine, though. I promise!


 
Excellent point, BlackEagle!  In New Jersey we have a large Italian-American population (mostly from Sicily and southern Italy) who use words and phrases that none of my "Italian-Italian" friends have ever heard!


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## Schrodinger's_Cat

beccamutt said:


> Excellent point, BlackEagle! In New Jersey we have a large Italian-American population (mostly from Sicily and southern Italy) who use words and phrases that none of my "Italian-Italian" friends have ever heard!


 
Hello beccamutt,

Do any of your friends speak the Sicilian dialect?


N.B. London calling said that the expression "mezza mezza" is used in Campania.


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## beccamutt

BenVitale said:


> Hello beccamutt,
> 
> Do any of your friends speak the Sicilian dialect?
> 
> 
> N.B. London calling said that the expression "mezza mezza" is used in Campania.


 
No, but BlackEagle is from Palermo and hasn't heard it, either...


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## Schrodinger's_Cat

BlackEagle promised to come back and post something here.


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## BlackEagle

Yes. Here I am! I was on an airplane... I had a few Sicilian friends over last night for an after lunch get together, and I asked them about "mezza mezza". None of them had never heard it too. But, of course, they all agreed that it might exist/have existed somewhere in Italy as a slang/dialect expression... 
To our foreign friends in here: I strongly recommend not to use it if you come to Italy!


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## Schrodinger's_Cat

BlackEagle said:


> Yes. Here I am! I was on an airplane... I had a few Sicilian friends over last night for an after lunch get together, and I asked them about "mezza mezza". None of them had never heard it too. But, of course, they all agreed that it might exist/have existed somewhere in Italy as a slang/dialect expression...
> To our foreign friends in here: I strongly recommend not to use it if you come to Italy!


 
Thanks for the reply. Okay, I won't use it when I'm ready to go to Italy. I'll just use it with the people I know, here, in New Jersey.

Thanks again.


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## You little ripper!

BlackEagle said:


> Well, I don't speak it well at all, but I hear it all the time, and I grew up here. There is certainly a chance that it is a Sicilian say I just don't know about. Another possibility is that, as time went by, many US immigrants from Italy party forgot their language and partly distorted some of its expressions. I faced this phenomenon myself many time in the US. I'll ask some friends of mine, though. I promise!


 I also thought it was a literal translation of *half and half* (half good and half bad), but I noticed that Oxford Paravia has it listed.

*mezzo*

~ e ~, mezz’e ~ half-and-half; (così così) so-so


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## london calling

beccamutt said:


> We say this in AE, too!


You live in a very "English" part of the States!


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## LeonardLloyd

Schrodinger's_Cat said:


> My grand parents came from Sicily, and they always say (no matter what), *"Mezza Mezza"* if and when someone ask them, "How are you?" or "How are you doing?" I know that it means, _"to take the good with the bad"_ I'm wondering what do people say in other parts of Italy?
> 
> Thanks.


My grandparents came from Lentini near Mt Etna and they used mezza mezza to refer to half coffee half milk, used with bread for breakfast. Also for water purified by adding half volume of wine.


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## You little ripper!

LeonardLloyd said:


> My grandparents came from Lentini near Mt Etna and they used mezza mezza to refer to half coffee half milk, used with bread for breakfast. Also for water purified by adding half volume of wine.


I didn’t realise wine purified water, Leonard! I’ve been looking for a new water purifier. 



london calling said:


> I'm fairly sure that this is a southern Italian expression, meaning, as you rightly say, "così così". If, as my (southern Italian) husband thinks, it comes from the French (see my previous post), that would explain why you wouldn't say it in the Veneto, as the French Domination was essentially of southern Italy. The fact that it is used in Sicily and Campania is significant (Il Regno delle due Sicilie) in my opinion.
> 
> Where are all our historians?!


I don’t think I’ve ever  heard Sicilians here use the expression (a few will say “half an’ half “ with a strong accent, so they could be translating literally from Sicilian), but I have heard a few Neapolitans say it.


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## ohbice

london calling said:


> ... as the French Domination was essentially of southern Italy.


Forse ti confondi con la dominazione spagnola?


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## london calling

ohbice said:


> Forse ti confondi con la dominazione spagnola?


No, intendevo i Normanni: francesi, anche se di origine scandinava.


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## ohbice

Ah, ho capito. Detto così come lo hai detto però è ambiguo, dato che a più riprese i francesi si sono "accasati" anche nell'Italia settenntrionale ;-)


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## Lucy Van Pelt

Io ho sempre sentito dire e usato "mezzo e mezzo"  sia al maschile che al femminile. Perché immagino voglia dire mezzo bene e mezzo male, cioè né male e né bene, così così, insomma.
Sono nata e vissuta a Firenze, ma ho origini siciliane. Non so dire da dove mi venga questo modo di dire.


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