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What does “chiave inglese” mean in Italian?

In Italian, chiave usually means key. But chiave inglese, literally “English key,” is the metal tool you use to tighten or loosen bolts: an adjustable wrench, or adjustable spanner in British English. The “English” part is a small history lesson — the adjustable version is credited to a British engineer in the 1840s, so Italians named the whole tool after where it came from. Knowing the parts won’t help you guess the meaning here.

A mechanic lists his gear: “Uso la chiave inglese e il cacciavite” — “I use the wrench and the screwdriver.” The second tool is built like a tiny instruction: caccia (from cacciare, to drive or push in) plus vite (screw), so a cacciavite is the thing that “drives the screw.” Two everyday tools, two very different word-building tricks: one named after a country, one that spells out its own job. Side note: the same wrench is sometimes called chiave svedese (Swedish), since a Swedish firm popularized it — both names point at where the tool spread from, not at any key.