Ripulista

Ripulista is a term found in Italian-language usage with several related senses. In its most straightforward sense it designates a person who performs cleanup work, such as cleaning streets, facilities, or other spaces. A ripulista may be employed as a janitor, maintenance worker, or sanitation staff member responsible for restoring a tidy condition.

In a figurative or political sense, ripulista can describe someone tasked with "cleansing" an organization, field, or public space of perceived problems, wrongdoing, or undesirable elements. In this usage, the term can carry critical or polemical connotations, depending on who uses it and why.

Linguistically, ripulista is formed from ripulire (to clean up) plus the agentive -ista suffix. The term appears more often in colloquial or journalistic Italian than in formal dictionaries; related forms include ripulitore (cleaner) and, in plural, ripulisti. Context determines whether it refers to a routine cleaning role or a symbolic housecleaning.

Because the word spans concrete employment and abstract action, its interpretation varies by region and discourse. Used prudently, it can describe ordinary cleaning personnel or serve as a label in debates about ethical reform and institutional cleansing.