blocco

See also: bloccò

Italian

FWOTD – 29 December 2020

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblɔk.ko/
• Rhymes: -ɔkko
• Hyphenation: blòc‧co

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French bloc, from Middle French bloc (“a considerable piece of something heavy, block”), from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from Middle Dutch blok (“treetrunk”), from Old Dutch *blok (“log”), from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”).

Noun

blocco m (plural blocchi)

1. block (substantial piece of any substance)
2. notebook, writing pad
   • 1991, Nora Roberts, Attimi sospesi, tr. of Second Nature, tr. by Claudia Cavallaro, Harlequin Mondadori (publ.).

     Prese un blocco e una matita.

     He got a writing pad and a pencil.

3. set, block (a group of identical objects, regarded as a whole)
4. (figurative) bloc, coalition

   blocco orientale ― Eastern bloc

Derived terms

• bloccardo

Further reading

• blocco¹ in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French blocus, from Middle Dutch blochuus (“fortified house”).

Noun

blocco m (plural blocchi)

1. blockade
   • 2005, Peter J. Hugill, La comunicazione mondiale dal 1844, tr. by Domenico Gallo & Andrea Marti, Feltrinelli (publ.), page 15.

     Durante la Rivoluzione americana il blocco navale inglese delle coste americane risultò inefficace e la guerre de course inutile.

     During the American Revolution the English naval block on America's coasts resulted ineffective and the guerre de course was useless.

2. embargo

   Synonym: embargo

3. block, blockage

   blocco stradale ― road block

   blocco dei rifornimenti ― blockage of supplies

4. standstill, paralysis (a state in which it is impossible to progress)

   blocco del traffico ― traffic jam

   blocco della produzione ― standstill in production

5. (economics) freeze (of pay, etc.)
6. lockdown

   Synonym: lockdown

   • 2020 September 18, Marta Rizzo, “"I dimenticati", per ricordare chi, con la pandemia ha definitivamente perso identità ["The forgotten", to remember who, with the pandemic has definitively lost their identity]”, in la Repubblica‎^[1]:

     Il blocco totale e la pandemia hanno reso più invisibili, di quanto già non fossero, disabili, migranti e rifugiati, donne e uomini nelle fasce della società più povere.

     The total lockdown and the pademic have made more invisible, more than they already were, the disabled, migrants and refugees, women and men in the poorest sections of society.

7. (computing) crash
8. (pathology) failure, arrest

   blocco cardiaco ― cardiac arrest

Further reading

• blocco² in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

blocco

1. first-person singular present indicative of bloccare