Italian expression of the day: ‘O la va, o la spacca’
Next time you throw caution to the wind and do something you might live to regret, you may want to say this first.
We’ve all at least once in our lives been in a situation where success would likely earn us eternal glory among family or friends, while failure would inevitably result in overwhelming feelings of shame.
It is at such moments, when the line between assuming the status of living legend and becoming the village idiot is ever so fine, Italians resort to the expression ‘O la va, o la spacca’.
This is usually uttered (or often just whispered) right before doing the momentous deed.
A literal translation of this idiom would be something along the lines of 'Either it goes or it breaks', but in the English you might use the sayings ‘make or break’ or ‘do or die’.
Here are a couple of examples of how the expression is used:
Q - Quella ragazza è fuori dalla tua portata. Hai una possibilità su un milione di farcela…
A - Lo so. O la va, o la spacca.
Q - That girl is out of your league. It’s one chance in a million…
A - I know. It’s a make-or-break situation.
Q - E’ un salto troppo lungo. Cadrai nell’acqua.
A - Tieni il mio telefono. O la va, o la spacca.
Q - It’s too big a jump. You’ll fall into the water.
A - Hold my phone. It’s make or break at this point.
As you can see, this idiom is used in situations where the outcome is going to be either very good or very bad, with little to no middle ground.
But keep in mind that locals use the expression in a pretty ironic and light-hearted way, so you’d never hear an Italian use this in a really dangerous situation.
'O la va, o la spacca' is a very popular saying in spoken Italian and it is cherished by most native speakers, so using it at the right place and time will surely score you some brownie points with your Italian acquaintances.
And many believe the idiom to have inherent auspicious powers. It's thought that simply uttering the expression prior to undertaking whatever action or challenge one is faced with will increase their odds of being successful. Clearly we have no way to verify that, so we’ll let you judge for yourself.
As for the origin of the idiom, it's unfortunately unknown, though the most convincing hypothesis is that it might derive from an old carpentry-related saying native to the Marche region: ‘O bbocca lo chiodo, o spacco la tavoletta’.
This could be roughly translated to ‘Either the nail goes in or I break the board’, hence the belief it might be the forebear of today's ‘O la va, o la spacca’.
Do you have an Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.
Comments
See Also
We’ve all at least once in our lives been in a situation where success would likely earn us eternal glory among family or friends, while failure would inevitably result in overwhelming feelings of shame.
It is at such moments, when the line between assuming the status of living legend and becoming the village idiot is ever so fine, Italians resort to the expression ‘O la va, o la spacca’.
This is usually uttered (or often just whispered) right before doing the momentous deed.
A literal translation of this idiom would be something along the lines of 'Either it goes or it breaks', but in the English you might use the sayings ‘make or break’ or ‘do or die’.
Here are a couple of examples of how the expression is used:
Q - Quella ragazza è fuori dalla tua portata. Hai una possibilità su un milione di farcela…
A - Lo so. O la va, o la spacca.
Q - That girl is out of your league. It’s one chance in a million…
A - I know. It’s a make-or-break situation.
Q - E’ un salto troppo lungo. Cadrai nell’acqua.
A - Tieni il mio telefono. O la va, o la spacca.
Q - It’s too big a jump. You’ll fall into the water.
A - Hold my phone. It’s make or break at this point.
As you can see, this idiom is used in situations where the outcome is going to be either very good or very bad, with little to no middle ground.
But keep in mind that locals use the expression in a pretty ironic and light-hearted way, so you’d never hear an Italian use this in a really dangerous situation.
'O la va, o la spacca' is a very popular saying in spoken Italian and it is cherished by most native speakers, so using it at the right place and time will surely score you some brownie points with your Italian acquaintances.
And many believe the idiom to have inherent auspicious powers. It's thought that simply uttering the expression prior to undertaking whatever action or challenge one is faced with will increase their odds of being successful. Clearly we have no way to verify that, so we’ll let you judge for yourself.
As for the origin of the idiom, it's unfortunately unknown, though the most convincing hypothesis is that it might derive from an old carpentry-related saying native to the Marche region: ‘O bbocca lo chiodo, o spacco la tavoletta’.
This could be roughly translated to ‘Either the nail goes in or I break the board’, hence the belief it might be the forebear of today's ‘O la va, o la spacca’.
Do you have an Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.