sbolognare

Parola del giorno

Today’s Parola del giorno is the verb sbolognare, which means to pawn off or to unload someone or something.

This verb is usually used to describe an action where someone offloads/pawns off something or someone to another person, like in our example below:

Non mi piace comprare macchine nuove di zecca dal concessionario. Preferisco acquistare un’auto un po’ usata, ma devo stare attento ai venditori: hanno la tendenza a sbolognare macchine guaste per guadagnare qualche euro!

I don’t like to buy brand new cars from the dealer. I prefer to buy a car that’s a bit used, but I have to pay attention to the salespeople: they tend to pawn off broken down cars to a few euro!

This verb has a unique etymology as it is derived from the city of Bologna, which was place that historically (during the Middle Ages) was known for its fake objects and low quality metals (like pawning off objects as real gold when they were made of fool’s gold).