bell'e buono

Italian

Etymology

Literally, “beautiful and good”.

Adjective

bell'e buono (feminine bell'e buona, masculine plural belli e buoni, feminine plural belle e buone)

1. (idiomatic) real, utter, outright, plain and simple

   Synonym: vero e proprio

   • 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:

     ... quel «principio» non teneva in nessun conto le esigenze o i sentimenti della figlia nel ricevere il messaggio emotivo che per i genitori quel meschino avere la meglio sull'altro era più importante della sua salute maxillofacciale e dunque rappresentava, visto da una certa angolazione, una forma di trascuratezza o di abbandono per non dire di maltrattamento bell'e buono, un maltrattamento chiaramente legato... alla cronica disperazione senza fondo che lei da adulta sopportava ogni giorno e nella quale si sentiva intrappolata.

     ... not a "principle" that took into account their daughter's feelings at receiving the emotional message that scoring petty points off each other was more important to her parents than her own maxillofacial health and thus constituted, if considered from a certain perspective, a form of neglect or abandonment or even outright abuse, an abuse clearly connected... to the bottomless, chronic adult despair she suffered every day and felt hopelessly trapped in.

     (literally, “... that "principle" did not take into any account the needs or the feelings of the daughter in receiving the emotional message that for her parents this petty getting-the-better-of-one-another was more important than her maxillofacial health and therefore represented, seen from a certain angle, a form of neglect or of abandonment to not say of mistreatment plain and simple, a mistreatment clearly tied... to the chronic, bottomless despair that she lived through every day as an adult and in which she felt trapped.”)