Italian idioms: "Rigirare il dito nella piaga"

Hi, everybody! I'm Luca and in this video I wanted to talk about the Italian expression "rigirare il dito nella piaga".

This video is geared toward those amazing people who are learning Italian as a foreign language. If you are one of them, please continue watching!

Alright. First of all let me say that this idiom has multiple variants. I told you the variant I prefer, which is "rigirare il dito nella piaga". Some people use the verb "rigirare", other people use the verb "girare". There are also people using the verb "mettere".

So, alternative versions of this idiomatic phrase are: "girare il dito nella piaga", "mettere il dito nella piaga", and there are also people saying "mettere il dito sulla piaga".

There are also variants in which, in place of the word "dito", the word "coltello" is used. In any case they mean the same. So some people say "rigirare il coltello nella piaga", others say "girare il coltello nella piaga", and other people say "mettere il coltello nella piaga".

Both the variants with "il dito", and the variants with "il coltello" are quite common. All the variants are, so speak, correct and acceptable, so use the one you prefer.

You probably don't know the Italian word "piaga", because this is an old word. Nowadays, in today's Italian, the word "piaga" is no longer used, people say "ferita" instead.

So "piaga" is an archaic equivalent of the word "ferita". In contemporary Italian nobody says "piaga" anymore, everybody says "ferita", but in some idiomatic expressions you can still find this word.

What does "mettere il dito nella piaga" literally mean?

It means sticking a finger in an open wound.

What does "rigirare il dito nella piaga" mean?

It means that, after sticking our finger in that wound, we start moving it around, we rotate our finger like so. That's what "rigirare/girare il dito nella piaga" means. In other words, there's a wound here, we stick our finger in it and rotate our finger.

Well, I considered the phrase with the word "dito", right? Alternatively, I could consider the phrase with the word "coltello". The same applies here. You have a wound right here, I stick a knife in this wound and start rotating the knife. That is I make the knife rotate inside this wound.

That is what this idiomatic phrase literally means. The imagery is clear.

This idiom figuratively means reminding someone of something unpleasant, something causing pain to them.

For instance, if a friend of mine were left by his girlfriend and were still feeling sad about that, meaning that he still missed this person - well, if one day I went out with my friend and told him "By the way, it's undeniable that your ex was really nice...", he could tell me: That's true, but please now "non rigirare il dito nella piaga".

What does it mean? Don't remind me of things that are painful for me.

Let's consider another example.

Let's pretend that a friend of mine were fired and later found another job, and that she missed her previous job, meaning that she better liked her previous job - well, if I go out with this friend of mine and tell her "By the way, do you remember when you worked that job? Well, I for one think that job was better", she could tell me I understand, but now please "non rigirare il dito nella piaga".

What does it mean? Don't remind me of things that are unpleasant for me. Or rather, of things causing pain to me.

Why? Because my friend better liked her previous job, I remind her of that, and it is as though I sticked a finger in a wound which is still open. Or, even better, it is as though I rotated my finger inside a wound that is still open.

So you now understand that this phrasal expression is used when somebody reminds someone of something painful, of something unpleasant. In theory, it could also be used if we remind this person a mistake they made.

And for them what we do is like moving our finger inside a wound that is still open.

So you understand that this idiom clearly makes you think of a person recalling, reminding others of something painful.

I for one like the variant with the verb "rigirare", which makes you think of someone moving their finger like so inside an open wound, rather than simply putting their finger on a wound.

For me, in this case the verb "rigirare" better depicts the sadism, lack of tact, insensitivity, preventing this person from understanding that the other person might find that unpleasant.

The verb "rigirare" has multiple meanings and is also found in other Italian idioms.

For example, we find it, with a different meaning, in the idiomatic expression "rigirare la frittata".

A while ago I made a video about this idiomatic phrase too. Here you can find a card to it. Check it out!

(Channel Outro)