How do you say...culaccino?

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For this word of the month post, I decided to start with a very peculiar word: the CULACCINO!

But what is it?

If you look it up in the Italian dictionary, its most used meaning is "la parte terminale di salami, salsicce e similari; anche la parte inferiore di un cetriolo, accanto al gambo" (Treccani), which literally means the last part of sausages, salami; also the ending part of cucumbers, near the stem.

However, it is its less common meaning that is interesting for us. A culaccino is also the mark that a wet glass (or any other container) leaves on the spot where it was placed (translated from Treccani).

The interesting fact about it is that it's untranslatable. Yeah, really.

You can look it up in all the dictionaries that you want, but you won't find it.

Cases like this are called Lexical Voids and, if you are interested in the matter, Batia Laufer explains it very well (p.582-583).

The only way to render its meaning in other languages is through a paraphrase, so in English it would be the translation mentioned above, while in Spanish it'll be la marca que deja un vaso frío en una superficie.

So, now you know: don’t let your beer get warm, or it'll leave a culaccino on the countertop!