from pp.63-64

1164 povero poor (cognate). From Latin pauperem (“poor”). Also cognate with English poverty, pauper, Spanish pobre and French pauvre (“poor”). To explain the second syllable consonant, note the change of Latin p > Romance language v is common.

1167 reddito income, revenue. From Latin redditum (“returned”). Cognate with render, as in render money (“to make a payment”). Examples, dichiarazione dei redditi (“declaration of income”, equivalent to tax returns in the US); reddito complessivo (“total income”); reddito disponibile (“disposable income”).

1170 avviso notice, warning, avvertimento. From Old French avis (which entered Modern French, meaning “opinion”). Cognate with English advise, advice, Spanish aviso (“notice”, “warning”). In spite of cognation and the temptation to substitute d for the first v in avviso, this word does not mean “advice” or “to advise” (consiglio and consigliare, respectively, in Italian). In the US, you may have seen the Spanish sign Aviso.

1171 opportuno appropriate, opportune, proper, timely. Note this word is an adjective while the noun is opportunità (“opportunity”). While English opportune is a cognate, it is far less common than Italian opportuno. Example, penso che sia opportuno scrivergli (“I think it’s appropriate to write to him”).

1175 assegnare to assign (cognate); to award. From Latin assignare. Examples, assegnare un posto in aereo (“to assign a seat in an airplane”); assegnare un premio al vincitore (“to award a prize to the winner”).

1178 appartenere to belong. From Latin appertinere (“to belong”), in which the root is tenere (“to hold”, “to have”). Cognate with appertain (“to belong”). But this English word is far less common than this Italian word. Example, questo bagaglio mi appartiene (“this luggage belongs to me / is mine”).

1180 profondo deep, profound, fondo. While English profound is used figuratively, this Italian word most of the time means literally “deep”, and is more common than the adjective fond, which more often is a noun. This is one of many cases where a Romance language word is usually more literal in meaning than an English word if they have an etymological relationship (cf. goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/24433799-try-interpreting-new-words-literally-first). Example, acque profonde (“deep water / waters”; the Italian phrase in plural is more common than the singular).

1182 diffondere to spread, to disseminate, to diffuse. 1445 diffusione spread (n.), diffusion. From Latin diffundere (“to diffuse”). Cognate with English diffuse and French diffuser (which is from the past participle of Latin diffundere), Spanish difundir (“to spread”). Note the vowel o, not u, in the verb. Examples, diffondere la buona notizia (“to spread the good news”); prevenire la diffusione del virus lavandoti le mani (“to prevent spreading the virus by washing hands”).

1184 mandare to send, inviare, spedire. From Latin mandare (“to order”, “to put in hand”). The first element, man-, means “hand” (mano), and the second, -dare, means “to give”. The meaning of “to send” is implied. Cognate with mandate, Spanish mandar (“to send”). This word is not as formal as inviare, and they both are more common than spedire, which has a connotation of urgency. Example, mandare / inviare / spedire una lettera (“to send a letter”).

1185 purtroppo unfortunately, sfortunatamente. From pure + troppo (“too much”). The first element pure does not have a clear sense. It seems to serve as an intensifier. Imagine the word means “too bad, this is way too much”. Later the word evolved to be used as a general adverb meaning the same as sfortunatamente.

1186 uccidere to kill, to murder, to slay, ammazzare, assassinare. From Latin occidere (“to kill”), from ob- (“toward”) + caedere (“to cut”). The root is cognate with the English suffix -cide (as in suicide, infanticide). Or use a mnemonic by imagining that a person poisoned someone with apple cider. Note the stress of this word is on the second syllable (-ci-).

1187 affare deal, affair, business. From a (“to”) + fare (“to do”). Cognate with affair. Note this word absolutely does not have the sense of “adulterous relationship” (relazione in Italian). Examples, uomo d’affari (“businessman”, not to be translated as “man of affairs”); affari pubblici (“public affairs”); è un affare fatto (“it’s a done deal”).