10

Dictionary translates 'duck' as 'anatra' and 'anitra'. I googled for difference explanation and found in this topic that Italians use 'papera'. So, how should I call duck in Italian?

abarisone
  • 20,307
  • 4
  • 30
  • 60
notChosen
  • 255
  • 1
  • 4
  • 3
    We also have the masculine form papero. By the way, Disney ducks are considered paperi in Italian. Donald Duck is Paperino, Scrooge McDuck is Paperon de' Paperoni and so on. – DaG Oct 20 '17 at 10:28
  • @DaG: And a "rubber duck" is also "una papera di gomma" or "una paperella di gomma"? – Charo May 22 '20 at 21:24

1 Answers1

8

Anatra refers to the wild animal while papera refers to the same animal considered as a pet.

From Treccani:

Il germano reale (Anas platyrhynchos) e l'oca selvatica (Anser anser) sono allevati da almeno 2.500 anni e hanno dato origine rispettivamente all'anatra domestica, detta anche papera, e all'oca domestica.

Anitra is an old fashioned word for anatra.

So you can use both (even if I prefer anatra for duck)

Community
  • 1
abarisone
  • 20,307
  • 4
  • 30
  • 60
  • Google translation: 'The royal jellyfish and the wild goose have been bred for at least 2,500 years and have given birth to domestic ducks, also known as papera, and domestic goats.' I like this version =) – notChosen Oct 20 '17 at 10:37
  • Seems ok, give or take a few random animals. :) Do you need a less fanciful translation? – DaG Oct 20 '17 at 10:57
  • @LSerni: Do you feel this is all that's wrong with that translation by Google? – DaG Oct 21 '17 at 07:26
  • @DaG, I did not pay attention to the "translation" at all. My mistake. – LSerni Oct 21 '17 at 09:36