Italian word of the day: 'Nipote'

Today's word of the day comes from a reader request.

"One word which I struggle with is Nipote/Nipoti," writes a confounded Italian student in Australia.

"How do I know whether somebody is talking about their grandchildren or their nephews and nieces?"

This reader has hit upon a stumbling block of Italian genealogical vocabulary: nipote can mean any of niece, nephew, grandson or grandchild.

Unusually for an Italian noun, its 'e' ending is neither masculine or feminine, meaning the article or possessive pronoun is the only way to know what gender is being referred to.

The noun also has confusing rules around the application of articles. Generally with close family relations, you scrap the article: mio padre rather than il mio padre. For nipote, you can generally do either, but scrapping the article indicates a more familiar relationship.

Andrò a vedere mia madre questo weekend.
I'm going to visit my mother this weekend.

Suo nipote sarà presente al matrimonio?
Will his nephew/grandson be at the wedding?

However, when you use the nipote in its diminutive form (nipotino or nipotina) for a young child, you do need the article. The same applies when you use the noun in its plural form, nipoti, or when the possessive pronoun is plural (e.g, il vostro nipote, la loro nipote).

Dove si nasconde il mio nipotino?!
Where's my little grandson/nephew hiding?!

Sono molto orgogliosi della loro nipote.
They're very proud of their granddaughter/niece.

Got that?

Back to our reader's question, how do you know whether someone who mentions their nipote is referring to their niece/nephew or grandchild, and, as our reader asks, "avoid that sort of conversation where I try and find out which they are talking about"? 

It may reassure you to know that the Accademia della Crusca, Italy's foremost linguistic academy, has considered this very issue, noting that Italy is pretty much unique among both Romance and Germanic languages in having only one word for 'niece/nephew' and 'grandchild'.

The Accademia opines that Italian's failure to distinguish between the two degrees of kinship is probably due to the fact that the way society was organised in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages meant that people had the same rights and responsibilities towards their children's children as they did towards their siblings' children.

The writer also notes that in parts of the southern Italy today, nipote can be an even more ambiguous term, being used to refer to the children of first or even second cousins, as well as grandchildren or nieces and nephews.

So is there any help at hand?! There is one word that offers some clarity: il/la abiatico/a or il/la nipote abiatico/a is the son or daughter of the child, i.e. the grandchild. 

But don't get too excited: abiatico is only used in very formal or academic writing, and plenty of Italians have never even heard of it. As the Academy's writer notes, he's never had occasion to use the word, and if he did he's not sure his interlocutor would know what he was talking about.

So our reader will have to settle for figuring things out from context. If in doubt, ask whether the person you're talking to is referring to their brother or sister's child, and let them correct you: better not to assume someone's old enough to be a grandparent.

Do you have an Italian word you'd like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.