Meaning of the idiomatic phrase LA PELLE D'OCA

In this video I'm gonna explain the meaning of the Italian phrase "pelle d'oca" and how to use this idiomatic expression.

This video is for those who are learning Italian as a foreign language. If you want to learn Italian well and speak it like a native speaker, you have come to the right place!

Hi, everybody, I'm Luca, the interstellar representative of advanced Italian and in this video I wanted to talk about the expression "la pelle d'oca".

You may not know the word "oca". "Oca" refers to a particular type of animal which is similar to a hen. Well, actually it's not that similar to a hen.

"L'oca" is a white animal with an orange beak. It has a longer neck compared to a hen and makes a rather distinctive noise, which in Italian is referred to with the verb "starnazzare".

You may be wondering what the phrase "la pelle d'oca" means and why (in Italian) people say "pelle d'oca".

Alright. "Pelle d'oca" refers to a rather peculiar reaction that takes place when the body temperature suddenly drops.

Basically, "la pelle d'oca" refers to when our hairs, for instance our arm hairs, raise, that is they stand up and are pulled upwards.

If this happens to me, I can say "mi è venuta la pelle d'oca".

That usually happens, for instance, when it's cold, when we feel cold. Or when we suddenly feel scared.

So our hairs, for example our forearm hairs, which are normally lying at rest like this, suddenly stand up. They are pulled erect. And then our skin looks a bit strange.

You surely know this feeling. And in fact in those moments our skin looks like the skin of a goose. Needless to say, a goose with no feathers.

Chickens look the same. If you look at chicken skin, you can clearly see that it looks like our skin when we suddenly start feeling cold. Or when we feel scared, when we are afraid. I don't need to explain to you how chicken skin looks like. Well, the skin of a goose is similar to that of a chicken.

My girlfriend - my ex girlfriend used to say "la pelle di tacchino", but, well, that's another story.

In italian, for some strange reason, people say "pelle d'oca" and not "pelle di pollo". In other languages, the reference is precisely to chickens, hens, etc.

Before shooting this video, I've done some research with a dictionary, trying to figure out why people say "pelle d'oca" and not "pelle di pollo".

And I have actually found out something really interesting. Or rather, I haven't found the answer I was looking for, but I found out some other things which I didn't know.

Among other things, I found out that this reaction is technically called "piloerezione".

Why? Because hairs, for instance arm hairs, suddenly stand up. So this reaction is called "piloerezione".

This is a word that I didn't know. This is clearly a technical term and nobody says: "Mi è venuta una piloerezione". Also because it would be....

Also because anywa...

Let's say that everybody says: "Mi è venuta la pelle d'oca". Or: "Ho la pelle d'oca".

But the most interesting thing that I have found out is not this one, it's that this reaction is also called "orripilazione".

Well, frankly this was the first time in my life that I saw this word. But it immediately made me think of the word "orripilante".

"Orripilante" is an adjective that you may not know. It's close in meaning to (the words) "raccapricciante" and "disgustoso". Specifically, though, "orripilante" also refers to the fact that something is scary.

"Orripilante" is related to (the word) "orripilazione", which is the process raising the hairs. So the part "-orri" means raising while "-pilante", "-pilazione" refer to the hairs.

If something is "orripilante", it means that it raises your hairs. So it is something that "fa venire la pelle d'oca". In other words, it's similar to (the word) "raccapricciante".

You may not know this adjective either. Anyway, "orripilante" and "raccapricciante" are similar adjectives. Or rather, they are two present participles used as adjectives.

For instance, horror movies want to be "raccapriccianti", "orripilanti", they want to repulse and scare you, or a combination thereof.

One could say that, if I say that a story is "raccapricciante", I mean exactly this, that is that this story gives me "la pelle d'oca".

Like I said, this was the original meaning of the word "orripilante".

Today this word tends to be used in a humorous way to mean that something is really awful. For instance, we can say: "No, non è brutto, è orripilante!".

In Italian you also have an idiom which is, so to speak, related to "pelle d'oca", "avere la pelle d'oca", which is "accapponare la pelle".

What does the phrasal expression "accapponare la pelle" mean?

It means causing someone's skin to look like that of a "cappone". "Il cappone" is a chicken. So they mean the same thing. In other words: something "mi può far venire la pelle d'oca", or "mi può far accapponare la pelle". Similarly, I can say "mi è venuta la pelle d'oca", or "mi si è accapponata la pelle".

Alright! I hope these idiomatic expressions are clear!

If you feel like it, in the comments below please write down to what animal your language refers. Because in Italian, like I said, the reference is to a goose, in other European languages the reference is to hens. Please write me if in your language there exist such an expression and to what animal it refers to.

I think I said everything I wanted to say!

May the Force of Advanced Italian be with you!

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