When we are anxiously awaiting something, each moment we spend waiting feels like an eternity. Time passes slowly, and the wait becomes an ordeal. We cannot picture the moment (“the hour”) when our wait will finally come to an end. It stretches out of view. Hence, the expression “non vedere l’ora”.
A metaphorical expression now ubiquitous in the Italian language, the idiom non vedere l’ora can be traced back to the plays of eighteenth-century dramatist Carlo Goldoni. Although a literal English translation is not available, a fitting conceptual equivalence can be found in the expressions can’t wait and to look forward to, as we see in the example sentences below.
A metaphorical expression now ubiquitous in the Italian language, the idiom non vedere l’ora can be traced back to the plays of eighteenth-century dramatist Carlo Goldoni. Although a literal English translation is not available, a fitting conceptual equivalence can be found in the expressions can’t wait and to look forward to, as we see in the example sentences below.