While working from a cafe this week I looked up and noticed a vintage sign on the wall advertising Cynar, a liqueur made from artichoke leaves, which is one of Italy's lesser-known aperitivo drinks. (If you haven't tried it yet, you should.)
Its famous slogan: contro il logorio della vita moderna, "against the strain of modern life", dates back to the 1960s - but it struck me as especially fitting of the mood right now among most working people I know.
Logorio (hear it pronounced here) means wear, or wear and tear: or the slow, continuous process of something being worn down through constant or heavy use, as the Treccani dictionary puts it.
Il logorio dei pneumatici dipende da come si guida
Tyre wear depends on how you drive
It comes from the verb logorare, which is equal to the English phrasal verb 'to wear out'. You’ll also hear the adjective logoro, meaning something is worn or threadbare.
Questa giacca ormai è logora
This jacket is worn out now
The word is much more often used figuratively, in the contexts of work or psychology, to talk about the toll stress and worry take on someone over time.
Dopo mesi di trattative, il logorio si faceva sentire.
After months of negotiations, the strain was starting to show.
In the original Cynar advert, shown in the evening block of TV commercials on state broadcaster Rai in the late 1960s, actor Ernesto Calindri sat at a small cafe table in the middle of a busy road junction, reading the paper and calmly sipping his Cynar as the traffic rushed past.
These days it’s not a phrase you’ll hear anyone say, at least not seriously. But it might be due a revival.
Il carovita è un logorio continuo per molte famiglie
The rising cost of living is a constant strain for many families
As for whether an artichoke-based amaro will help, that’s up to you.
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