La mia giornata e i verbi riflessivi

What is the difference between spremuta and succo in Italian?

In Italian, freshly squeezed juice has its own word: una spremuta. It comes from spremere, “to squeeze,” so a spremuta d’arancia is orange juice pressed right there from the fruit, what a bar serves in a glass. Juice from a bottle or carton is usually called succo (succo di frutta). So the word you pick quietly tells people whether the juice was just squeezed or poured from a package.

In a simple daily-routine rundown the speaker lists breakfast: “Alle 7.30 faccio colazione con caffè, cornetto e un bicchiere di spremuta d’arancia” - coffee, a cornetto (the Italian croissant), and a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice. Spremuta is the past participle of spremere (“to squeeze,” from Latin exprimere) used as a noun, literally “a squeezed [thing].” Order una spremuta di arancia or di pompelmo (grapefruit) in a bar and they squeeze it for you; on a shelf you reach for succo. Related: lo spremiagrumi is the juicer that does the squeezing.