From Eurovision melodies to medical maladies with Dr Gianluca Bezzina

We have all heard the singing doctor grace the stage in Malmo and secure a creditable eighth place with his uplifting song Tomorrow in 2013. We have also heard him belt out his song Sabiħa, which won him the third edition of Mużika Mużika 10 years later.

But have you ever heard Gianluca Bezzina speak about a series of ailments – from cysts (ċesti) to thrushes (ħrar) and colic (bruda) to smelly urine (awrina tinten)… and still make it all sound incredibly endearing?

In the fifth clip in a series put together by Times of Malta and Dizzjunarju.mt, Bezzina sheds some light on the word ‘doctor’ (tabib), and the various ailments linked to the profession and different kinds of hospitals (sptarijiet).

If you want to learn more about the word tabib and its linked vocabulary, check out the entry here, and if you think the researchers have missed out on a meaning, get in touch here. 

Dizzjunarju.mt is a free, authoritative and up-to-date reference resource that has started taking shape and went live on June 19.

It is accessible on any mobile device. It is set to become the first national digital dictionary of Maltese and is currently being developed by the Department of Maltese at the University of Malta.

It builds on the work done in the sector over the past decades while remaining abreast of the current use of the language and will take years to compile.

Among others, its features include a pronunciation tab, definitions in Maltese and English equivalents, grammatical information such as which part of speech the word falls under, its plural, root (għerq) and etymology.

The site also provides information about the various meanings of a word, examples based on the natural use of the language, idioms and phrases.