a mo' di

Italian

Etymology

Contraction of a modo di.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a‿mˈmɔ di/

Adverb

a mo' di

1. like, as, by way of

   Synonym: come

   • 2007, David Foster Wallace, “La persona depressa [The Depressed Person]”, in Ottavio Fatica, Giovanna Granato, transl., Brevi interviste con uomini schifosi [Brief Interviews with Hideous Men], Einaudi:

     I genitori della persona depressa, ad esempio, che avevano divorziato quando lei era bambina, l'avevano usata a mo' di pedina nei loro giochi perversi, come quando la persona depressa aveva avuto bisogno di ortodonzia e ciascun genitore aveva dichiarato ─ non senza ragione, aggiungeva sempre la persona depressa, viste le ambiguità medico-legali degli accordi di divorzio ─ che doveva essere l'altro a pagarne le spese.

     The depressed person's parents, for example, who had divorced when she was a child, had used her as a pawn in the sick games they played, as in when the depressed person had required orthodontics and each parent had claimed ─ not without some cause, the depressed person always inserted, given the medical-legal ambiguities of the divorce settlement ─ that the other should pay for it.

     (literally, “The depressed person's parents, for example, who had divorced when she was a child, had used her as a pawn in their perverse games, like when the depressed person had needed orthodontics and each parent had declared ─ not without reason, the depressed person always added, seeing the medical-legal ambiguities of the divorce accords ─ that it had to be the other to pay for its expenses.”)

Anagrams

• amido, diamo, domai