Looking for an apartment in Rome? Besides for it being super frustrating, there may be some ‘house’ words used in ads that one might not recognize.

For example, sgabuzzino, the Italian noun (m) for a storage room, or a closet. In other words, a space where you’d put items that are not used on a daily basis.

The etymology of the word is unclear (starting as cabuzzo, then changing into gabuzzo, then sgabuzzino over time), but it seems to be related to the English word, caboose, and the Dutch word, kabuys. Both meaning a ship’s galley/kitchen, or the area where kitchen utensils were kept.

Now the real question becomes, when did caboose come to mean buttocks, or rear-end in English?!