Seventy-two is 'a maraviglia, wonder or astonishment. Italian tables gloss it lo stupore.
The board holds about eight pure abstractions across ninety squares (misfortune, laughter, wonder, fear, weeping among them) and puts everything else on an object or a person. That ratio is worth noticing: this is a picture list, and pictures of feelings are hard.
- 72
- 'A maraviglia
- the wonder
- Row 71–80 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
None recorded.
Other things filed on 72
In Neapolitan life
Maraviglia is the older Italian spelling, still standard in Neapolitan, where modern Italian has settled on meraviglia. Several squares preserve forms Italian has since abandoned, which is one way of dating the layer of language the board comes from.
72 in the smorfia — frequently asked
The board keeps the older form, maraviglia, which is still the Neapolitan one. Modern Italian writes meraviglia.
Around eight out of ninety: misfortune, laughter, wonder, the fall, weeping, the lament, tedium, fear. Everything else is a person, an object or an event.