Understanding Para- Words in Italian
There are several Italian words that start with "para." Many of them come from the verb parare, which means "to protect from," "to shield," or "to guard." This can help you infer the meanings of these words.
Words from Parare
Let’s look at some examples:
parafulmine: lightning rod. Para + fulmine (literal: protects from lightning).
paracadute: parachute. Para + cadute (literal: protects from falls).
parabrezza: windshield. Para + brezza (literal: shields from the breeze).
paralume: lampshade. Para + lume (literal: shields the light).
parafango: mudguard. Para + fango (literal: protects from mud).
paraurti: bumper. Para + urti (literal: protects from impacts).
parastinchi: shin guards. Para + stinchi (literal: shields the shins).
paraculo: (vulgar) an opportunist or cunning person. Para + culo (literal: someone who protects their backside).
Greek Words
I’ve got some good news and some bad news.
The bad news is that many Italian words starting with "para" come from Greek origins instead of Latin/Italian. In such cases, para- means “near”, "beside," "alongside," or even "beyond."
The good news is that many of these words are extremely similar to their English equivalents, as both languages borrow from Greek.
For example:
paramedico: paramedic (alongside medicine).
paralegale: paralegal (alongside law).
paranormale: paranormal (beyond normal).
paradosso: paradox (beyond belief).
parallelo: parallel (beside one another).
As a learner of Italian, your main advantage over a child is that you already know a primary language. You should take full advantage of this by recognizing patterns and words that easily translate into Italian.