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Italian
Etymology
Literally, “at the lacking”. Compare French prendre au dépourvu.
Prepositional phrase
alla sprovvista
- (idiomatic) off guard
2020, Barack Obama, chapter 15, in Chicca Galli, Paolo Lucca, Giuseppe Maugeri, transl., Una terra promessa [A Promised Land], Garzanti Libri:Sentire questi fatti così basilari dalla bocca di un presidente americano avrebbe colto molti ascoltatori alla sprovvista, immaginavo, e forse aperto la loro mente ad altre crude verità...- Hearing such basic history from the mouth of a U.S. president would catch many people off guard, I figured, and perhaps open their minds to other hard truths...
- (literally, “Hearing such basic facts from the mouth of an American president would have caught many listeners off guard, I figured, and maybe open their minds to other raw truths...”)
Usage notes