/ˈfare lo skarikabaˈrile/ lit. ‘to play barrel-dumping’
Italian idiom, everyday. To shift the blame onto someone else.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Italian speaker.
How do people use Fare lo scaricabarile
?
Everyday, and a favorite in political news when ministries and agencies each blame the other. It describes the whole back-and-forth of buck-passing more than one person blaming another, so it often has a plural subject: “è il solito scaricabarile”. “Scaricabarile” also works as a noun for the person: “che scaricabarile che sei!”
Also said fare a scaricabarile, giocare a scaricabarile
Fare lo scaricabarile
in real sentences
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Non cercare di fare lo scaricabarile.
Don’t try to pass the buck.
Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, translation by CM, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Che scaricabarile che sei!
What a buck-passer you are!
Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Fare lo scaricabarile
come from?
English Wiktionary says “scaricabarile” is first a children’s game in which two players stand back to back with arms linked and take turns lifting each other, like a barrel being unloaded from one back to the other. The figurative sense, a blame game where each person pushes responsibility onto someone else, comes from that endless handing over. Treccani carries the word, but the figurative use isn’t dated.
Mistakes learners make with Fare lo scaricabarile
Writing it as two words. It’s one word, “scaricabarile”, built from “scaricare” (to unload) and “barile” (barrel).
Other Italian idioms like Fare lo scaricabarile
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