Yael, you left out the accents, which are semantically very relevant in this case because, as you typed it, cosa would be “thing” and cosi would be an improper plural of it. Actually, cosà isn’t a proper word either; it is just kinda paired with così and the expression was likely taken from the French one.

“così cosà” is right and if the characters aren’t available one can make do with cosi’ cosa’ instead.

This comes from one who has been fully living in Veneto for 39 years.

Cosi Cosa!
It’s a wonderful word tra-la-la-la.
When anyone asks you how you are,
It’s proper to say Cosi Cosa.

Cosi Cosa!
If a lady should ask you if you care,
You don’t have to start a love affair,
Say Cosi Cosa!

Makes me wonder if perhaps that’s what the asker’s mother was saying, and it got mixed up in his memory with other things, or if she said the French version after all.

(FYI, the Piedmontese dialect is a PAIN IN THE ASS to learn. It’s like a mix of French and Italian. It’s so VERY confusing.)

So I believe that Clint could very well have a full-blooded Italian mother. I also believe that his mother is from northern Italy, near the Italian/French border area. :D

This is coming from someone who goes to Italy every other year to meet his family in Torino (Turin, for those who don’t know it’s Italian name), so I hope I know what I’m talking about.

LaVonne – careful, pitting German and French against each other hasn’t always had desirable results, historically speaking. ;)

I wonder now whether the name of the playground ’seesaw’ has any connection to ‘comme-ci, comme-ça’ or not.

A similar hand gesture is frequently used in the U.S.A. with the exception that the palm is almost exclusively parallel to the ground (like a seesaw), but otherwise has the same meaning.

What I find particularly interesting is commonality of the associated hand gesture (forearm extended, thumb up, oscillatory rotation left and right). Has this a wider usage or is it solely a western European gesture?

“The exact spelling is “comme-ci, comme-ça”. It literally means “like this,
like that”.

“I’m not particularly talented in translation but it means in a more general
sense that things are going neither well nor bad and probably not as well
as they should, or that one would like. In any case, the situation could be
better. I think that the concept is probably more Latin than Anglo-Saxon.”

Similarly, we say “les goûts et les couleurs” (tastes and colors), short for “les goûts et leur couleurs, cela ne se discute pas” (tastes and colors, you just can’t dispute them).

The phrase is not “Chacon son gout”.

Rather, it is

“Chaqu’un à son goût.” (Lit., “Each one to his taste.”

The equivalent Latin phrase was
” De gustibus non disputandum.”
Roughly, “About tastes, it is not to be argued.”

Cheers,
David

However, the accompanying gesture, as you describe it, is almost always the same, if a gesture is used. What Italian could speak without using hands, anyway?

What it means is that you think of the perfect comment just as you’re descending the staircase as you’re exiting the party on your way home. It’s the French equivalent of “it was right on the tip of my tongue.”

And it’s not new. But the sentiment is exactly perfect. When I first heard it, I said to myself “Self, I’ve been looking for that exact sentiment my entire freaking life. Whoever came up with that knows me entirely too well. Is this Candid Camera? No, really!”