dare il via
Italian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Literally, “to give the go-ahead”.
Verb
[edit]dàre il via (first-person singular present (with syntactic gemination after the verb) dò il via, first-person singular past historic dièdi il via or diédi il via or détti il via or (traditional) dètti il via, past participle dàto il via, first-person singular future darò il via, first-person singular subjunctive dìa il via, first-person singular imperfect subjunctive déssi il via, second-person singular imperative dài il via or dà' il via, auxiliary avére)
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dare, il, via.
- 2020, Barack Obama, chapter 27, in Chicca Galli, Paolo Lucca, Giuseppe Maugeri, transl., Una terra promessa [A Promised Land], Garzanti Libri:
- Con il rombo dell'elicottero sullo sfondo... diedi ufficialmente il via alla missione...
- With the roar of the helicopter in the background... I officially gave the go-ahead for the Abbottabad mission...
- (literally, “With the roar of the helicopter in the background... I officially gave the go-ahead to the mission...”)
- (figurative, by extension) to set in motion; to start [with a ‘an activity’]