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  • Arts & Culture
  • Issue 39

Word:
Umarell

The men who stare at construction sites. Words by Annick Weber. Photograph by Salva López / La Manufacture.

Etymology: A neologism for a not-so-new concept, umarell refers to an older man who spends his days inspecting the work in progress at construction sites. The word was coined in 2005 by Danilo Masotti, an Italian writer, and is a distortion of umarèl, meaning “old man” in Bolognese dialect. Since it describes what is traditionally a group phenomenon, it’s important to know that the correct plural is the Anglicized form umarells, not the standard Italian plural umarelli. This is to

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This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-Nine

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