What is it about?
In Italian literary texts from the 14th to the 20th century, characters are often cursed with a disease: this happens with the recurring formula 'che ti venga X' where X is almost always a disease, and in particular a dangerous, debilitating and stigmatising disease, such as the plague, rabies, cholera, dysentery, etc. I have found 132 examples which are also banned in law texts and in court documents. There is a widespread belief that these curses invoke the power of God or of a supernatural power and therefore they are also seen as sinful and even as blasphemous. The expression is still frequent in Italian and in various dialects.
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Why is it important?
If we want to reduce the amount of impoliteness around us, we need to investigate how it works. Until now, the overall idea in linguistics was that impoliteness depends mainly on the situation, but for the first time it becomes clear that there exist impoliteness formula that follow a recurring pattern. In the example 'you piece of...'!, you always add something rude. Interestingly, while politeness formula change in line with social revolutions, impoliteness formula are very stable and 'Che ti venga' is 700 years old and thriving. Other languages have disease curses as well: Dutch 'krijg de pest' and English 'may the plague get you!'...
Perspectives
I have particularly enjoyed the interdisciplinary angle, whilst diving into law texts, court documents, theological works and, above all, studies about historical epidemiology. The most amazing find was the rabies curse in the famous 18th-century playwright Carlo Goldoni, from Venice, which I was able to link to rabies epidemics in dogs and wolves in the Eastern Dolomites, which are indeed close to Venice. I also am amazed by the fact that this formula is 700 years old, and particularly enjoy that Italian colleagues send me examples from their dialect!
Dr. Annick Paternoster
Universita della Svizzera Italiana
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Che ti venga
NP, a conventionalised impoliteness formula for Italian disease curses (14
th
–20
th
..., November 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/9783111477084-005.
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