Pettegolezzi means items of gossip. Juicy details. The lowdown. The chatter, the chit-chat. And other nouns of the sort.
It comes from the Italian noun, pettegolo, or gossiper. In other words, the one who gossips. It can also be used as an adjective, to mean chatty, or gossipy.
In the same vein, spettegolare is the verb form, meaning to gossip. Or as Word Reference hilariously translates it, ‘to gossip, to piffle, to bitch, to prattle, to tittle-tattle to buzz about, to dump on someone.’ Those words definitely generated some LOLz.
All of these words are derived from the Latin, petere, or to search for, to go after.
Examples:
‘Ce l’hai qualche nuovo pettegolezzo?’ – Do you have any new gossip?
‘Conosci Pietro? Che pettegolo!’ – Do you know Pietro? What a gossiper!
