I bet you'll be familiar with what this word describes, even if you've never heard it before.
There's no exact equivalent in English, but you can probably see why it exists in Italian: the abbiocco (hear it pronounced here) is a need to lie down, especially the one that strikes after eating and drinking heartily.
It's defined by various dictionaries as a 'fit of drowsiness', 'desire to fall asleep', 'giving way to tiredness' or – my favourite – 'sleep stroke'.
And while it's not limited to eating-induced tiredness, that's how it's usually applied. Our closest English translation in this context might be 'food coma'.
Dopo pranzo mi è preso un abbiocco tremendo.
After lunch I fell into a real food coma.
La pasta mi fa venire l'abbiocco.
Pasta makes me sleepy.
It comes from a verb born in central Italy that has largely fallen out of use: abbioccarsi, meaning 'to collapse from exhaustion'.
While you'll almost certainly never hear an Italian say io m'abbiocco, you might hear them describe themselves as abbioccato/a – 'half asleep', 'wiped out' – for reasons edible or otherwise.
Sono abbioccato.
I'm knackered.
When this feeling strikes, it's time for a pennichèlla.
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