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predica

sermon

noun PREH-dee-kah Rare
Arts & Culture Religion

Origin: From Latin praedica, related to praedicare (to proclaim).

Also means

lecture, scolding

Usage Note

Predica primarily means a religious sermon, but colloquially it is very commonly used to mean a long-winded scolding or moralizing lecture — mi ha fatto una predica ('he gave me a lecture/earful'). This figurative use is more frequent in everyday speech than the literal religious sense.

Examples

"Il prete ha tenuto una lunga predica."

Natural Translation

The priest gave a long sermon.

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