Averne fin sopra i capelli

How do people use Averne fin sopra i capelli?

Familiar, everyday Italian, said with a sigh about a job, a noisy neighbor or a long winter. It almost always appears as “ne ho fin sopra i capelli”, and you add “di” for the thing you can’t stand: “ne ho fin sopra i capelli di questo traffico”. Past forms work too: “ne aveva avuto fin sopra i capelli”.

Also said averne fino ai capelli, averne fino alla cima dei capelli

Averne fin sopra i capelli in real sentences

• Ne ho fin sopra i capelli.

  I’ve had it up to here.

  Tatoeba, sentence by dnnywld, CC BY 2.0 FR

Where does Averne fin sopra i capelli come from?

Treccani lists “averne fin sopra i capelli” under “capello” with the gloss “to be fed up”, next to the general phrase “fin sopra i capelli”, meaning completely, as in Manzoni’s governor Don Gonzalo, sunk “fin sopra i capelli” in the business of war. The picture is being filled or buried past the top of your head. English Wiktionary quotes it from a 2007 Italian translation of David Foster Wallace, and we found no record of its earliest use.

Mistakes learners make with Averne fin sopra i capelli

Dropping the “ne”. “Ho fin sopra i capelli” is missing the thing you’re fed up with, so the sentence hangs in the air; it has to be “ne ho fin sopra i capelli”, or “ne ho fin sopra i capelli di lui”.

Other Italian idioms like Averne fin sopra i capelli

• averne le tasche piene (to have your pockets full of it)
• non poterne più (to be unable to take any more)
• essere stufo (to be fed up)
• essere pieno fino alla gola (to be full up to the throat)