What it looks like
The diminutive of un attimo: a moment. So, theoretically, almost no time at all.
What it really means
A completely undefined quantity of time, money, delay, annoyance or seriousness. «Aspetta un attimino» may mean ten seconds, twenty minutes, or «I have not started yet and would rather you did not know.» At some point, attimino even stopped being about time.
How it is used
«È un attimino caro.» It is very expensive. «È un attimino complicato.» We have no idea how to solve it. «Hai esagerato un attimino.» You went spectacularly too far. The word makes large problems sound grammatically smaller.
The key
Italians do not use un attimino to be precise. They use it to soften reality. A huge delay becomes a tiny delay; a disaster becomes a slightly complicated situation. Even when everything is going to hell, we prefer to be there only un attimino.
