Is ‘cosare’ equivalent to the generic use of ‘do’ in English?

Question

I'm a little bit ahead of my Italian lessons, but I hear people using forms of *cosare*, but don't fully understand it. I'm trying to figure out what it means in English (or even Spanish, although English is my native tongue). The closet thing I could think of was do (when used generically, not as an auxiliary)I understand that it's used in *Che cosa?* to mean *What?*, but I don't understand why it's necessary. I'd always thought that it meant *What happened?*, but my grandfather (born in Abruzzo, but a terrible teacher!) says it just means *What?*I'm not entirely sure whether *cosa* is used as a noun or a verb in that question, but it seems like it would be a verb.It reminds me of the *do* in the English *Let's do lunch*, but my grandfather said that idiom really doesn't translate into Italian very well. He suggested *Facciamo il pranzo*, but said that it would be *Cosiamo il pranzo* if I **insisted** on using *cosare*. Even though he didn't like that, he said I can use it generically for any verb, and he did give me some examples, but I don't understand it semantically.I've tried figuring this out using Google Translate by translating sentences from both English and Spanish, but Google doesn't recognize the word *cosare*.For example, I started with *Possiamo mangiare il pranzo di domani?* I then substitued *cosare* for *mangiare* and got *Can we cosare tomorrow?* I thought that maybe it just doesn't translate well into English, so I tried translating it into Spanish first (in my head, not with the translator). I replaced first *comer* with *cosare* and then *almorzar* as an alternate and got *¿Podemos cosare mañana?* in Spanish for both. I tried using a 3rd phrasing in Spanish with the original question and got *avere* for the verb, but I ended up with another meaningless translation, which you could probably guess.After getting frustrated, I decided maybe I should try something more basic and tried entering *Coso quello* for *Voglio quello*, but it still just gives me the translation of *Coso that* in English, and *CosA ese* in Spanish. That would mean *thing that* in English, but it's nonsense in Spanish too.I tried *Io coso buono* for *Io sono buono* and *Coso bene* for *Sta bene*, and got *good thing I* for **both**, at which point I decided that was about as basic as I could possibly get and gave up.Are there any English phrases, idioms, words, or expressions that can approximate the meaning of *cosare* in Italian? Am I at least attempting to use this verb properly?

Answer 1

You know, the subtle uses of words vary according to the dialects in Italy...I looked up "cosare" in my big Italian dictionary because I had not heard it used when I lived in Italy for five years 1967-1972.

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My dictionary says ,"cosare v.t. (coso) (fam) (substitute verb) to do: cosa stai cosando? what are you doing?

The standard word used everywhere in Italy is "fare."

Note that this word, "cosare" has been tagged as one you would use in conversation with those with whom you are 'famliar.' To me, that suggests as I mentioned to start with, it may be part of one of the many dialects in Italy. In my experience, there seems to be a different dialect for each area or even city, such as..the Neapolitano, the Romana, the Siciliana,

Answer 2

Cosa is a noun used frequently in Italian, and it is used to mean what. However, cosare is not a common verb. Some Italians you ask may have never even heard of it. It gets used regionally sometimes, and it is typically used as a substitute for something you don’t know or can’t remember. Again though, in standard Italian, you will not hear cosare used; you will only here the noun cosa (what). Here’s a link to a forum where some Italians discuss their opinions on this as well: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/cosare.609748/