You are right Gelato is simply Italian for ice cream When I see it I say gelato in Italian and ice cream in English However Americans think they are clever when they use foreign words and they have decided that gelato or gelado as they pronounce it is some special thing similar to ice cream but with less cream For the rest of us it s just a creamy brand of ice cream una marca di gelato abbastanza cremoso or a not so creamy brand of ice cream una marca di gelato poco cremoso Here in Australia it s even worse They say geladi presumably because Italian ice cream parlours have GELATI ICE CREAMS written out front so they have decided that it is a special word for the product inside You ll see the same tendency in the word prosciutto People will actually say it s not ham it s pro shoo do which is bemusing to Italian speakers What they mean by pro shoo do is sometimes Italian ham sometimes dry cured ham It s beyond me why they can t just call a spade a spade A final note my girlfriend once went to Italy and ordered a lattay as she pretentiously would in Australia She got her comeuppance however when they gave her the glass of milk latte that she ordered rather than the milky coffee caffellatte that she wanted