Newbie........

[johnothewop]

Hey there guys...

New to the forum and just wanted to say "hi"......

Looking forward to getting involved with some posts and reading some local goss.....Hope you all are well.

all the the best

J

[Alan Medic]

I always thought that 'wop' was offensive to Italians.

What does it mean in your case J?

[johnothewop]

Hello to you Alan ,

And thanks for the welcome to the forum :)

The commonly accepted etymology of the word "wop" is that it originates from a southern Italian dialect term guappo, meaning swagger, derived from the Spanish term guapo, via dialectical French, meaning ruffian or pimp.

Being of italian descent I can say the term does not bother me.....it is a word that I grew up with and was affectiontely teased with by my siblings.

So thats what it means to me...and is not that significant :) Thanks for asking....

All the best

J

[computedshorty]

Hi John.

My sister married an Italian Novice Priest, that had been in Monty Casino during its seige by the Allied Forces, they met at John Lewis Store in Sloan Square where she worked, he was a Valet that had been sponcered by a large Company to come to England, and lived in Upper Brook Street, when they married it was quite a lift to be living next to Park Lane.

We have only called Norberto by his given name, it never crosssed our mind to call him anything else.

They now live in Eastbourne, in their mid seventies and eighties.

[Dopamine1979]

I was once told that 'wop' is an acronym for 'Without Official Papers' referring to the arrival of immigrants at Ellis island in New York.

[El Pibe]

Acronyms didn't really [curry favour]* until the the post war (the first big one) period.

Anything harking back to an earlier period is almost certainly a retrofitted explanation.

Johnthewop's explanation feels better, especially as southern Italy was ruled by the spics** in a linguistically transitional period netween ancient and modern.

*french or indian?!

**I'm allowed

[PeckhamRose]

and what does 'goss' mean?

[Sue]

Gossip :)