Someone needs to put two in Greg Golden

That would be wop.


And since you mentioned it do you know what it means?

 

Re: Re: Someone needs to put two in Greg Golden

With Out Papers?

-----------------------
Kim Pearson

© 2003. All Rights Reserved



WOP

1. n. [1910s+] a derogatory term for an Italian.

2. n. the Italian language.

3. adj. Italian (e.g. "wop town" below).



wop town

n. [1930s+] (US) that part of a town in which the Italian community lives



Perhaps the most popular of all slurs used in the United States to refer to people of Italian descent (the runners-up being "dago" and "guinea"), "wop" first came into frequent use in the first two decades of the 20th century. It has since spread throughout the English-speaking world. Credible sources universally agree upon the word’s etymology. Apparently, the Spanish word guapo, meaning "dandy," was carried to Sicily by Spanish soldiers, where it became part of the Sicilian/Neapolitan dialect as guappo. Guappo, with two P’s, became a term of affection, meaning something along the lines of "handsome guy" or "dude". Italians who immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century brought the term with them, not as a slur, but as a term of affection for one another. In time, guappo, shortened and spelled phonetically, was adopted as a derisive term for Italian-Americans by their new countrymen.

Cassel’s Dictionary of Slang lists the above derivation as the primary one, but also ventures one possible alternative. The Latin word vappa means "sour wine" – or figuratively a "worthless person." It is not inconceivable that this etymology, also of a Romance-language origin, could have had some connection with or reinforced the guapo derivation.

Note that some unreliable sources, especially internet sources, offer an alternate etymology for "wop," claiming that it is an acronym for "With Out Papers" or "With Out Passport." The idea is that this moniker was given to Italian immigrants upon their arrival to the United States without the appropriate documents. Although many acronym-derived racial slurs exist (WASP is the most obvious example), the guapo derivation is too strongly supported by scholarship for much credence to be given to the "With Out Papers" theory. Irving Lewis Allen’s Unkind Words also mentions an alternate acronym derivation: "Works On Pavement," coming from what Allen calls an "occupational stereotype." (p. 100)

A note on "doo-wop": Doo-wop was a popular vocal music style of the mid-‘fifties to early-‘sixties, that accompanied the early days of rock’n roll (indeed, it is sometimes considered inseparable from rock). Although the syllable "wop" appears in the name of this musical genre, it is doubtful that the term has anything to do with the racial slur. Like the great modern jazz style "bebop," which preceded it by a decade, "doo-wop" most likely got its name from the nonsense-syllable rhymes that characterize the genre. Admittedly, there were many great Italian-American doo-wop artists, such as Dion and Frankie Vallie, but doo-wop was an extremely egalitarian music, with major artists coming from a wide spectrum of ethnic backgrounds. However, the correspondence of the two terms, "doo-wop" and "wop", has led to innumerous punning references in recent years. That Italian-American musical groups would exploit this pun indicates a relaxation in their sensitivity to the slur – indeed it is a source of humor – but others do not take the word so lightly.

Interestingly, the original Spanish guapo has been heard a bit lately in popular culture. The Chevy Chase – Steve Martin – Martin Short film The Three Amigos featured a Mexican bandit leader known by the nickname El Guapo. Former Boston Red Sox reliever Rich Garces briefly became a folk hero bearing the same nickname, perhaps in part due to his resemblance of the character in the movie.

1912 A. Train Courts, Criminals & Camorra ix. 232 There is a society of criminal young men in New York City. . . They are known by the euphonious name of ‘Waps’ or ‘Jacks’. These are young Italian-Americans who allow themselves to be supported by one or two women . . . They form one variety of the many gangs that infest the city.

1914 Jackson and Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 88 Wop, noun Used principally in the east. An ignorant person; a foreigner; an impossible character . . . Example: ‘You couldn’t find a jitney with a search warrant in this bunch of wops.’

1915 Wodehouse Psmith, Journalist xix. 138 He’s a wop, kid . . . a wop. A dago. . . An Italian.

1924 E. Hemingway In Our Time 17 Wops, said Boyle, I can tell wops a mile off.

1930 G.B. Shaw Apple Cart II. 78 Lysistrata. What they call an American is only a wop pretending to be a Pilgrim Father. He is no more Uncle Jonathan than you are John Bull. Magnus. Yes: we live in a world of wops, all melting into one another.

1940 N. Mitford Pigeon Pie i. 7 Luke’s Italian was far more affected than that of any native wop.

1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 13 June 26 The pilots . . . suggested that the ‘Wops were yellow’ or that they could not ‘take it through cloud.’

1952 E.F. Davies Illyrian Venture ii. 26 We had breakfast in the mess tent, waited on by a cheerful wop.

1973 ‘I. Drummond’ Jaws of Watchdog ii. 26 Sandro dived into the pool . . . ‘You great fat clumsy Wop,’ said Jenny, ‘you’ve put my cigarette out.’

1989 Harper’s and Queen Magazine. Maro Gorky. " ‘At our last New Year’s Eve party, we had 65 wops, and five Brits’ says Maro. ‘They behaved atrociously, all huddled up in a corner.’"



http://www.gumbopages.com/food/app/wop-salad.html [how to make "wop salad"]

http://www.ironminds.com/ironminds/issues/010813/media.shtml [heeb/wop magazine profile]







Bibliography

Allen, Irving Lewis. Unkind Words: Ethnic Labeling from Redskin to WASP. New York: Bergin & Garvey, 1990.

Green, Jonathan. Cassell's Dictionary of Slang. London: Cassell and Company, 1998.

Lighter, J.E. ed. Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. New York: Random House, 1997.

Liptzin, Sol. The Jew in American Literature. New York: Bloch Publishing Company, 1966.

Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

Spears, Richard A. Slang and Euphemisms. New York: Middle Village, 1981.

Thorne, Tony. The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang. New York: Pantheon Books, 1990.

Wentworth, Harold and Flexner, Stuart Berg editors, Dictionary of American Slang. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1975.



Copyright 2003 by Eric Wolarsky



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Re: Re: Re: Someone needs to put two in Greg Golden

without reading all the BS up there... yes Without Papers is correct.

 

What do I win!?!?!

 

Nothing you wop.

 

My name is Chris, but I've never considered it a woppish name, especially since I'm part Cherokee.