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sorvolare

to fly over; to gloss over

verb sohr-voh-LAH-reh Rare
Travel & Places Movement

Origin: From sopra/sur- (over) + volare (to fly), from Latin volare.

Usage Note

Sorvolare uses avere in compound tenses: ho sorvolato. The figurative meaning — to pass over something without dwelling on it, to skip a topic — is very common in conversation: sorvoliamo ('let's skip that' / 'let's not get into it'). The literal and figurative senses are equally frequent.

Examples

"L'aereo ha sorvolato le Alpi in piena notte."

Natural Translation

The plane flew over the Alps in the middle of the night.

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