Today’s word of the day has the unique distinction of being both completely made up and a shameless plug for all you Young in Rome readers out there to participate in our March Madness/La Pazzia di Marzo NCAA Tournament pool! Seriously, spend five minutes making your basketball picks, and enjoy a month of caring about the likelihood of a St. Bonaventure/LIU Brooklyn showdown in the finals (spoiler alert: considering the respective 14 and 16 seeds of those two teams in their quadrants, chances are it ain’t gonna happen…). But enough of that, let’s move on to the word!
Bracketare (v): Literally, to fill out a bracket-shaped form, either online or on paper, in which one progressively selects the winners of succeeding games in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. One must make 63 selections in total, beginning with the rounds of 64 and 32, sailing into the Sweet 16, inching forward with the Elite 8, fantasizing the Final Four, and then bringing it all home with a National Championship pick that has a 76% likelihood of featuring two teams that were eliminated in the second round. The usage of bracketare is not tied to one particular region of Italy, and, in fact, is most prevalent among American collegiate sports enthusiasts making a temporary or permanent residence in the Eternal City.
