Okay, I’m in a silly mood. But since I wanted to cross-promote my diary about My Trip to the Barbershop and because I still smell a little too heavily of aftershave…I thought I would provide everyone with a Mobster to English dictionary.
Ya know, in case you ever visit New Jersey…or Philly.
A trippa di zianata: “your aunt’s tripe.”
Action: a bet that a bookie “writes” and for which you pay him his “vig.”
Administration: the top-level “management” of an organized crime Family—the boss, underboss, and consigliere.
Agita: anxiety, edginess, an upset stomach.
Anti-Trust Violations: what authorities call the mob practice of carving out exclusive territories. Wiseguys call them “mine.”
Associate: one who works with mobsters, but hasn’t been asked to take the vow of Omertá; an almost confirmed, or made guy.
Borgata: an organized crime Family.
Boss: the head of the Family who runs the show. He decides who gets made and who gets whacked. The boss also gets points from all Family business; also see don, chairman.
Buon’ anima: salutation meaning rest his soul.
Buttlegging: bootlegging untaxed cigarettes.
Cafone: a peasant or lower-class.
Capo: the Family member who leads a crew; short for capodecina.
Cazzis: see Stugots.
Che bruta: How ugly you are.
Che peccato: what a pity, what a shame.
Chiacchierone: chatterbox.
Clip: to murder; also whack, hit, pop, burn, put a contract out.
Code of silence: not ratting on your colleagues once you’ve been pinched—no longer a strong virtue in organized crime families. Also see Omertá.
Col tempo la foglia di gelso diventa seta: old Italian saying meaning, “Time and patience change the mulberry leaf to satin.”
Comare (also goomah, goomar, or gomatta): slang for girlfriend or mistress. No self-respecting wiseguy is without one.
Come heavy: to walk in carrying a loaded gun. You shouldn’t have lunch with a Russian drug dealer unless you “come heavy.”
Confirm: to be made; see made guy.
Consigliere: a trusted Family advisor, who is always consulted before decisions are made. See Tom Hagen in The Godfather.
Crank: speed; in particular, crystal meth.
Crew: the group of soldiers under the capo’s command.
Cugine: a young soldier striving to be made.
CW: FBI shorthand for Co-operating Witness.
Don: the head of the Family; see boss.
Eat alone: to keep for one’s self; to be greedy.
Executive Game: a special-event card game for celebrities and other high-rollers
Facia bruta: ugly face, something you call someone you don’t like.
Family: an organized crime clan, like the Genoveses, the Gottis, or the Sopranos.
Fanook, or Finook: derived from “finocchio” or fennel, a derogatory term for homsexual or gay, i.e., people that wiseguys feel nervous around. A “mezzofinook” is half gay, sissy, bi.
Forbidden Fruit: the lure of a wiseguy to a nice Italian girl from the neighborhood.
G: a grand; a thousand dollars; also see large.
Gabagool: (capo cuoll) something to eat.
Gira diment: going crazy.
Golden Age: The days before RICO.
Goomah (sometimes pronounced “goomar”): a Mafia mistress; also comare.
Guests of the state or Guests of the government: going to prison, doing time.
Hit: to murder; also see whack.
In the wind: after you leave the Witness protection program you are “in the wind,” meaning you’re on your own somewhere out there.
Jamook: idiot, loser, lamebrained, you know, a jamook.
Juice: the interest paid to a loanshark for the loan; also see vig.
Lam: To lay low, go into hiding.
Large: a thousand, a grand, a G.
LCN: FBI talk for la Cosa Nostra, or translated, “Our Thing.”
Made guy: an indoctrinated member of the Family. Essentially, you pledge your allegiance to the boss and the family for life. To even qualify, your mother has to be Italian.
Madonn’: Madonna, common expression meaning holy smoke, holy cow, holy shit.
Mannagge: going to war with a rival clan or family.
Message job: placing the bullet in someone’s body such that a specific message is sent to that person’s crew or family; see through the eye, and through the mouth.
Mezza morta: half-dead.
The Mob: a single organized crime family; OR all organized crime families together.
Mobbed up: connected to the mob.
Mobster: one who is in the mob.
Mock execution: to whip someone into shape by frightening the shit out of them.
Moe Green Special: Getting killed with a shot in the eye, like the character, Moe Green, in The Godfather. One form of “sending a message.”
Mortadella: derived from the Italian sausage, meaning a loser. As in “Guy’s a fuckin’ mortadella.”
Mulignan (literal translation): eggplant. Another word for African-Americans. Also called “mooleys.”
Musciata: mushy.
OC: FBI talk for Organized Crime.
Omertá: the much-vaunted Mafia vow of silence. In other words, don’t rat on your friends. Transgression is punishable by death.
Oobatz: u’pazzu—crazy.
Outfit: a clan, or family within the Mafia.
Paying tribute: giving the boss a cut of the deal.
Piacere: “Pleasure to meet you.”
Pinched: to get caught by the cops.
Points: percent of income; cut.
Poverett: poor person.
Predicates: an offense which the Justice Department can choose to “fold into” a RICO statute. As in, “This charge could be tough. It could have predicates.”
The Program: The Witness Protection Program.
Pucchiacha: cunt.
Pump and dump: standard practice for unethical stockbrokers. First drive up the price of a small stock by “encouraging” investors to buy it (“pump”) and then sell you own shares (“dump”) for a tidy profit.
Puttana: whore.
Rat: one who snitches or squeals after having been pinched.
RICO: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Passed in 1970 to aid the government in clamping down on organized crime activities, its scope has since been broadened to prosecute insider traders and anti-abortion protesters.
Schifosa: ugly woman.
Sfogliatelle: an Italian pastry.
Shakedown: to blackmail or try to get money from someone; also to give someone a scare.
Shy: the interest charged on loans by loansharks.
Shylock business: the business of loansharking.
Soldier: the bottom-level member of an organized crime Family, as in “foot soldiers.”
Spring cleaning: cleaning up, hiding or getting rid of evidence.
Strunz: strunzo—piece of shit.
Stugots: from stu cazzo or u’ cazzu, the testicles. Tony Soprano’s boat is The Stugots.
Taste: a percentage of the take. Tony gets a big taste from bookmaking or racketeering but only a little taste from medical fraud.
Tax: to take a percentage of someone’s earnings.
This thing of ours: a mob family, or the entire mob.
Through the eye: a message job through the eye to say “We’re watching you!”
Through the mouth: a message job through the mouth to indicate that someone WAS a rat.
Tizzun: Neapolitan derogatory term for black person.
Underboss: the second in command to the boss.
Va fa napole: “Go to Naples” (i.e., “Go to hell.”).
Vig: the interest paid to a loanshark for the loan. Abbreviation of vigorish; also see juice. Usually two points or 2%.
Waste management business: euphemism for organized crime.
Wearing it: showing off one’s status in the organization by dressing the part. “Wearing it” usually involves an Italian suit, a pinky ring, a hankie in the breast pocket, gold cufflinks, and other ornamentation. Silvio has his own inimitable way of wearing it.
Whack: to murder; also clip, hit, pop, burn, put a contract out.
Wiseguy: a made guy.
And I thought I knew it all just from watching The Sopranos and Goodfellas!
Your barbershop story is a wonderful piece of writing, aside from being very funny and entertaining.
Any wiseguys here? (Besides Welshman?)
Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri: The world really went downhill, since 9/11. You know, Quasimodo predicted all of this.
Anthony ‘Tony’ Soprano Sr.: Who did what?
Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri: You know, the middle east. The end of the world.
Anthony ‘Tony’ Soprano Sr.: Nostradamus. Quasimodo’s the hunchback of Notre Dame.
Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri: Oh, right. Notredamus.
Anthony ‘Tony’ Soprano Sr.: Nostradamus and Notre Dame, that’s two things different completely.
Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri: It’s interesting that they’d be so similar, though. You know, I always thought “Ok, you got the hunchback of Notre Dame. But you also got your quarterback and your headback of Notre Dame”.
Anthony ‘Tony’ Soprano Sr.: Notre Dame’s a **ing cathedral!
Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri: Obviously, I know. I’m just saying. It’s interesting, the coincidences. What, you’re gonna tell me you never pondered that?
Anthony ‘Tony’ Soprano Sr.: No!
I remember that scene. What great writing!
You too Boo, I mean you’re the Boss, right?
We lived in an Italian ‘ghetto’ at one point.
My son had an Italian accent at 8 years old
from playing outside with all the Tony’s.
Anybody yell “Tony” on the street and 11 heads would turn.
ciao
Amazing how many of these words are used over here, as well.
I once met a big guy in Slough,near London. He was introduced to me as “Overcoat”.
“Does he always get called that name?” I asked afterwards.
“Yes”, I was told ” I asked the same question because he was sitting at a wedding reception wearing one. I was told that the nickname came from this habit of always wearing a coat – made necessary because he always carried a sawn-off shot gun slung down his back”.
Ah, the “Sarth” London mob. Back in the days of the famous Kray twins, the UK’s biggest and nastiest mob capos.
Obviously you realise you are not going to get whacked for criticising those representing themselves as soldiers at dKos. However it does happen. I was banned from dKos following such an incident. I assume the bannings do have a chilling effect on some people. I mention this because some on that thread, and possibly this includes you, were suggesting you wouldn’t get banned for such a thing. Well that depends who you are; since you are a “made man” over there you are allowed to say it (after thirty-odd paragraphs of introduction).
I didn’t recognise I was pushing any boundaries with my diary!!
Heya, da Big Guy there messes with me, he messes with the alla the boys, right? Right!
Silvio: What the f— are you doin’? Lunch is ready.
Paulie: I’m washin’ my hands.
Silvio: You just washed your hands.
Paulie: (Nodding) Then I tied my shoes.
Silvio: So what?
Paulie: I can’t stand touchin’ f—in’ shoelaces! Ever go to tie your shoes and ya notice the end of your laces are wet? From what? Why would they be wet?
Silvio: I got no f—in’ idea.
Paulie: You go to public bathrooms? You stand at urinals?
Hesh: Oh! C’mon will ya!
Paulie: Well, he’s askin me, and I’m tellin’ him! And frankly, it’s important! Even if the lace is dry, and even if you don’t touch the body of the shoe, bacterium virus migrate from the sole up.
Chris: Did you see this on tv?
Paulie: I gotta watch tv to figure out the world? Your average mens s—house is a f—in’ sewer! You look at Ladies Johns. You could eat maple walnut ice cream from the toilets. Eh!There’s exceptions.But, the Men’s! Piss all over the f—in’ floor, urinal jammed with cigarettes and mothball cakes. And they can put all the f—in’ ice they want down there my friend, it does nothing to kill germs. Even if you keep your shoes tied, you’re still draggin’ your laces through…
Silvio: Oh, SHUT THE F— UP!”
…we love ’em.
And Nate in Six Feet Under and …well actually all of them.
Interesting fact for USA citizens short of something to cheer: It is not surprising that the UK shows (other than The Office) that you quote on here are twenty to thirty years old. The US comedy shows today are generally far superior to those which we now produce over here.
May I complain? BBCAmerica sucks. On Monday nights, they have “mystery” night. Well. There’s “Wire In The Blood” and it just gets gorier and more gruesome from there on. My goodness. “Wire In The Blood” can make “The Sopranos” look like a PBS kids show.
We don’t get any of your marvelous documentaries. I’d DO ANYTHING to get “The Power of Nightmares” aired here. People need to see that badly.
I have never seen that show you mention.
Is it that bad? It’s a shame. Now with BBC Four, the output of serious programmes on UK TV from them is outstanding.
Write to them. And catch what you can on their website. I understand that they are going to put more and more programmes on there.
Tony can’t get a Hasidic jew to give up his restaurant, so he calls Hesh:
Tony: I’m here with my non-shellfish eating friend. I gotta tell you something, I’m tapped out. This guy won’t listen to reason.
Hesh Rabkin: Didn’t I tell you, huh? Didn’t I warn you to keep away from those fanatics?
Tony: He’s leaving me no options. This guy’s willing to go down with the ship like no man I’ve ever seen.
Hesh Rabkin: Here’s a thought… Maybe he’s willing to go to the world to come, but if he’s stuck here on this earth, I know one thing that no man wants to go through life without.
Tony: What? Oh. That’s a fucking brilliant idea.
Hesh Rabkin: Make like a mohel, huh? Finish his bris.
(hangs up)
I found your dictionary very amusing; brought back childhood memories of family in Philly. One entry in particular caught my eye:
“Mulignan (literal translation): eggplant. Another word for African-Americans.”
My grandfather used that term, and I thought it was something he made up. It always disappointed me; a character flaw in an otherwise generally good man. I had no idea it was in wider usage. Not sure that forgives anything, but it was personally enlightening and shines a slightly different light on my memories of him.
In your understanding, in the tone or implications of this term, would the English equivalent be “black,” “negro,” or “the N-word?”
Thanks.
worse than the ‘n’ word.