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Guappo from Spanish Guapo

Guappo ‘e casa e strunz ‘e piazza. “Boss in the house and asshole in the square”.

This is the phrase that my aunt always pronounced referring to her neighbor who, as soon as he got home from work, would scream at his wife and children. My aunt wanted to say precisely that this man, so docile when he was around town or at work, acted like a boss when he came home, to let off steam of all his frustrations. But he was really an idiot, a weak, an asshole, because he preferred to treat his relatives badly and not get angry with who he should have.

The guappo in Naples is that person who wants to behave like a boss, a bully, a rude. This word derives from the Spanish “Guapo” which means “Beautiful”. And in turn it probably derives from the Latin word Vappo which means a man who can’t do anything, a lazy. Furthermore, according to some historians of the language, it would also derive from the English slang Wop (With-Out Passport), which was used in the early 1900s in The United States to indicate Italians in a derogatory way.

The guappo must therefore be identified as that individual who likes to create havoc, noise, annoy and act as if he were a boss. He is the man who is always ready to throw himself into the fray of a fight, to create a controversy, to beat the others.

The word guappo is so widespread in Naples that it has created a series of other terminologies and idioms. For example, a Neapolitan refers to the word Guapparia when he means that someone is behaving like a guappo. Or in Naples it is also said: “The guapparia is rising”, to affirm that the nervousness is becoming so strong with respect to an event, that soon it is probable that a violent quarrel will also be reached.

As we have said several times, the Neapolitan dialect is a language that is expressed with much irony. The guappo can be a person who scares others and therefore, to destroy the image of a violent who scares us, in Naples they invented the way of saying Guappo di Cartone (guappo of Cardboard). Who is this kind of Guappo? It is that person who behaves like a boss but who does not know how to handle the situation well.

Above all, he is the one who has very weak enslaved people behind him, who deals with matters of little importance. In short, he is a person who behaves like a guappo only in certain circumstances that are not absolutely dangerous.

It may also be a person who promises revenge but who is actually afraid of facing the enemy and even that asshole in the square who said my aunt.

But Guappo di Cartone is a very big offense in Naples. When someone tells you that you are like that, he is saying that you are a really useless person for yourself and for all others.

You are a Cardboard Guappo because your figure is insignificant, similar to that of a cardboard template.

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Papiéllo from Spanish Papel and French Papier

Ma che è ‘stu papièllo?… What is this papièllo?

A typical phrase of the Neapolitans who find themselves having to read a document full of words difficult to understand. The Papièllo, in fact, in Neapolitan means mainly “document”. It derives from two foreign words: from the Spanish “Papel” and from the French “Papier”. Both words mean, in their respective languages, paper. And Paper is also intended as a document.

But the papièllo in Neapolitan is not only a written document. It can also be only oral.

It can be, for example, a wording on an ancient building, perhaps in Latin. Or a set of information, a decalogue of rules posted inside a civil building. In short, for the Neapolitan the papièllo is something to read or to say that it is really long.

By this we do not mean that Neapolitans do not like to read, on the contrary they will be happy to read a papièllo, provided that they are given the opportunity to make irony.

We know, at this point, that Neapolitan language needs to irony everything. It has to do it to play down, to make a conversation nice and above all to put the interlocutor at ease. To be ironic about something or a situation makes the situation itself lived in a way to read.

So, when a Neapolitan has to read a very long document, then, he announces to the listeners, or even to himself, that that document is a papièllo. Thus he uses the word papièllo to play down and say aloud: “We are ready to face a boring, long but necessary reading”.

But the papièllo can also appear in an informal, family conversations that do not concern official documents. For example, if a child of a Neapolitan family writes a letter to his grandfather for his grandparents’ party or for Christmas, it may happen that he becomes an object of irony on the part of his family. Let’s take an example. It’s Christmas and Carmine, a Neapolitan child, wrote a nice letter for his grandparents to thank them for the gift they made him find under the Christmas tree. The boy puts the letter under his grandfather’s pasta dish and, as soon as all the family members sit at the table, he says to his grandfather: “Look what’s under your plate”. Grandfather will find his grandson’s letter and start reading it. At that moment he will say in front of everyone: “Let’s read this little papièllo who wrote Carmine”. But he will say that in an ironic and above all affectionate sense, because he knows that his grandson is good at school and has written a long but full of love letter.

Let’s take another example. A Neapolitan husband is sent by his wife to do the shopping. The woman wrote her shopping list on a sheet of paper. When the man arrives at the supermarket, he unrolls the sheet and realizes that the list is really long. Then he approaches the shop assistant and asks him, in an almost desperate and compliant tone: “Can you help me, please? My wife gave me the shopping list but it’s a papièllo and I don’t understand anything.”

A typical shopping list that will lead the two lovers to a most certain fight

When the husband returns home, he will probably fight with his wife for forgetting to buy something. And the husband will justify himself by saying: “You gave me to buy a papièllo di roba, “too much stuff” (in this case the word papièllo is accompanied by the word roba, which means stuff), how could I remember everything?”.

So here we go from the irony to the apology. Using words that indicate exaggerated situations can also become, in the Neapolitan language, a form of personal apology for claiming that you are unable to complete a task but certainly not because of an improper fault.

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‘Nciarmà from French (En)Charmer

There are many words of the Neapolitan dialect that derive from other languages and that, once they have entered the Neapolitan, lose or transform their meaning. One of them is ‘Nciarmare. Inciarmare or ‘nciarmare comes from the French verb (En)charmer that in French means to enchant, to amaze. But in Neapolitan it doesn’t mean just that. ‘Nciarmare is a more articulated sort of “arrangiare”. In Naples they say ‘Nciarmà when someone wants to organize something clandestinely or when he wants to organize a plan behind someone’s back.

This verb is also used to indicate gossiping. If two neighbors are on the landing or look out from adjacent balconies, they are sure (if they are gossips) that they will start talking about someone, that is, they will start to ‘nciarmà.

But, we said, that ‘nciarmà is also a more extensive form of “arrangiare”. ‘Nciarmare in fact also refers to the ability of a Neapolitan to organize something, a lunch with friends, or simply the construction of an object, with few tools available but achieving a record goal.

If I am able to ‘nciarmare, I am truly the King of all the genius.

As we have said several times, some words that derive from other languages become in the Neapolitan expression of irony but also of contempt, of pungent criticism. If, for example, a woman is unable to dress well or to match the colors of her clothes, it is certain that the other women (especially the gossips) will tell her that when she dresses, “lei si ‘nciarma”. That is, the woman in question does not know how to dress and that she leaves the house with a style completely inappropriate for the common taste.

Let’s move on to the irony of the male gender. You know, the men in the house are not cookery magicians. And so if a wife who comes home late from work asks her husband to prepare dinner, it is possible that on returning home the woman finds food that she does not think is cooked well. Undercooked, too seasoned, inappropriate on the palate. The Neapolitan wife will then say to her husband: “Cosa hai inciarmato? (What the hell have you did)?”, That is, Cosa hai fatto? Dovremmo mangiare questa schifezza stasera? (Should we eat this junk food tonight?).

And finally we come to an example of pure irony. Two boys who are usually lazy and do nothing from morning to night are surprised by their friends or their parents at home cleaning or building something. A more unique than rare event. Spontaneously then those who discover them will ask with surprise: “What are you doing?” And they will promptly reply: “Stamm ‘nciarmann!”, that is, “we are doing something new and different for us, aware of the fact that it will not be good because we are not used to dealing with household chores. So before criticizing us, know that we ourselves are not appreciating the quality and result of what we are doing.

It therefore seems almost impossible to contrast the dialectic and the genius of the Neapolitan dialect. A language capable of having the answer ready for every single occasion and full of words and topics for every situation.

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Crianza from Portuguese Criança

“Crianza” in Neapolitan means “having a good education”, but not that education that University or school gives you, it is an education that comes from your family and perhaps from your genetics.

A person who has no crianza in Naples is a heartless person. “Crianza” comes from the portuguese word criançaand in this language it is something that has to do with children and their behavior. So we can say that the Neapolitan has taken the innermost meaning of this word to transform, once again, the meaning of its communication. Because if we want to create a cultural link between the Portuguese word and the Neapolitan one, we could say that the crianza is something that is born inside you when you are still a child and if it does not stick in your soul when you are not yet an adult, it is likely that it will never knock at your door.

In Napoli we use to say: “Avere ‘na bona crianza” (having a good crianza), because in the world there are also people who do not have a good crianza, but a bad one. Saying “have a good crianza” is also a wish that one person gives to another who is in difficulty. It is a way to wish him good luck.

As we have already said, crianza is not something that can be bought but certainly can be learned. Those who “nun tenene crianza” (have no goodness) are on the fringes of conscience and usually behave in the wrong way. The underworld, the fraudulent, the profiteers who think only with

selfishness and do not commit themselves to the community. Hence, crianza becomes not only a type of soul but, above all, an attitude that determines our way of life.

What can we do to live according to the laws of crianza? We can act with charity, helping the weakest and those in economic difficulty. But even a small gesture, the simplest one can be understood as a gesture of “good manners”.

Finally, this word enters the head of a Neapolitan since he was a child because it is also pronounced at the table. It is known that the Neapolitan mothers and grandmothers (but basically all the mothers in the world) demand that their little ones eat everything that is brought to the table.When you just can’t finish your whole meal and leave a small bite on your plate, here in Naples, your grandmother or your mother will criticize you in front of everyone saying: “You left on your plate ‘o muorzo d’ ‘a crianza” (you left the bite of the crianza on your plate). A truly ironic and contemptuous way to criticize you who have not been able to appreciate the gift of food and those who, having everything they need, are not used in life to give to those who is in trouble, leaving the poorest a little bite of something that does not help them.

From the meaning of the phrase ” ‘o muorzo d’ ‘a crianza” we can also understand how the Neapolitan is a language of strong social denunciation, able to ironize even on the simplest things, simultaneously educating the interlocutor.

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Arrangiammoce from French Arranger

How many times French kings have commanded in Naples?

Many and their presence in the Neapolitan city has not only brought politics, monuments and dominant influences. It has above all enriched the Neapolitan dialect with new words. The words that made up the Neapolitan language, as we have already said, are almost all from other languages. One of these passing languages is French. It has left many memories in our dialect. Among these we find the verb Arranger which in Neapolitan becomes Arrangiare (or Arrangiammoce) which means: to manage a difficult situation.

What meaning does this verb take in the Neapolitan? Arrangiammoce it is above all a way of life, a lifestyle that every Neapolitan citizen got from birth. If you have nothing to live with, you need to get by, if you are faced with a difficulty, everyone must be able to get by, if the fate becomes mocking, we must not break down but get by or learn to manage as best we can.

Have you invited many friends to dinner but don’t have enough food to feed them? Here it is enough that a single member of your group utters the word “arrangiammoce” so as to exhort all his friends not to regret the eventuality but to take the moment with the right spirit, so as to make the evening succeed, better than as it should have been in the initial idea. The Neapolitans, in fact, have more fun when they manage than when they organize everything perfectly. Indeed, in reality, the established organization bores the Neapolitan who loves to surprise and surprise.

This way of doing can also fight poverty and even the sense of desolation that surrounds you when you think you don’t have enough resources to be able to continue living. The meaning of this philosophy of life is perfectly explained in the lyrics of the song Arrangiàmmoce from the soundtrack of the Neapolitan theater show C’era Una volta Scugnizzi:

Arrangiàmmoce…

E si ‘a musica è bbòna And if the Music is goo

Ce facìmmo purtà We will be brought

Ce astrignìmmo ‘o cazóne we tighten our trousers

E tirammo a campà and we keep going

E cammina cammina and walk on, walk on

Pecché ‘a rròbba ce sta because the stuff is there

E sta pure vicino and it’s also close to you

E se trova si ‘a saje truvà And you will find it only if you can

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English Familiarity French History Intimacy Italian Language Napoletano Napoli Neapolitan Neighbourhood Senza categoria sloppy Teacher Translation

Sanfasò from French Sans Façon

There are so many words of the Neapolitan language that even the Neapolitans themselves cannot pronounce correctly. One of these is the word “sanfasò”. In reality sanfasò is not a real word, it is above all a way of doing a thing, an expression that indicates the sloppy way in which something is performed. A synonym of sanfasò in the Neapolitan language is the verb “arronzare” which means performing a task without obligation.

Sanfasò comes from the French phrase Sans Façon which in Italian means “alla buona” or “alla meglio”.

As we said before, many words of the Neapolitan dialect are incorrectly pronounced even by the Neapolitans. Most citizens of Naples say sanfasò like this: “sonfrasò”, or “alla sonfrasò”. This happens because often the speaker of the dialect does not know what certain words refer to, does not know where they derive from and above all cannot write them.

But when is it that the Neapolitans pronounce the word sanfasò? Especially when something is not done well. In every Neapolitan house, for example, every time you have to make a bed in the morning, a battle arises between mothers and children. If the son volunteers to make his own bed, or worse, he wants to make his parents’ bed, it is more than obvious that the mother on duty will reproach him for not having made the bed well and will tell him: “look what you’ve done, you always do things ‘alla sanfasò'”.

A typical bed done at sanfasò

If, on the other hand, we are hanging out with our friends, it may happen that a friend of our crew is made fun of for being a guy who does things without particular attention. It therefore happens that if on a Saturday night it is up to him to drive the car to take friends around, he can be told this phrase: “As usually you do things without sense. You parked alla sanfasò”.

Parking at sanfasò

And more. If at home we find ourselves having to cook, we who know nothing about cooking, it is almost certain that the classic Neapolitan grandmother will make fun of us by saying: “Today you cook? Then we certainly eat at Sanfasò”.

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ABBASCIO that means DOWN

 

This time we’re talking about the word Abbàscio. 

In Italian it means giù (Down There). In the neapolitan language it comes from many languages like Spanish, Catalan, French and Portuguese. Abbascio is the product of the words abajo, a baix and en bas. 

In Napoli Abbascio is a word that can be used in different contexts. It mainly means down, that down to the building where you live. “Corri, ce sta ‘o pustino abbascio (run, there is the postman down)”. This is the typical phrase that your mother yells at you when the postman arrives at your house and you must also go down in your pajamas to go and sign a letter.

But abbascio also means the place of an appointment. “Ce vedimm abbascio addu te domani (see you down to your place tomorrow)”. Abbascio is therefore also that typical place, the usual place where you meet with friends. And it can be either the door of the palace of a friend, or a square, a street, a wall where everyone passes and it is easy to be able to make an appointment.

Dante plaza, the most common place to meet with friends in Napoli.

Naples is a city divided by neighborhoods, by traditions and ways of living. It contains many cities within one city. Citizens of the upper part of the city usually say the word abbascio when they want to talk about the neighborhoods that are located in the flat area. I’m talking about the neighborhoods of the historic center, the most famous ones. A citizen of the upper districts of Naples often says “vaco abbascio Napoli” to say that he is traveling (by funicular or subway) to the districts of the historic center of Naples. Sometimes abbascio can also be used in a derogatory way since the neighborhoods of the historic center are among the poorest in the city. And so an inhabitant of Vomero (the richest and highest Neighborhood of Naples) quietly says “Sto andando abbascio Napoli” to say: “I’m going to that area that I despise but where I am forced to go for work”.

Vomero neighboorhood.

We have seen in previous articles that the Neapolitan language is able to transform the meaning of a foreign word. Now we have been able to observe that a word that derives from different European languages takes on multiple meanings in the same Neapolitan dialect.

The culture and the freedom of speech of the Neapolitan are still evolving. They constantly change, defying time and traditions, the canons of language and the barriers of perception. 

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Ancient English Familiarity French Greek History Intimacy Italian Language Latin Napoletano Napoli Neapolitan Past Teacher Translation

The words of the ancient Neapolitan. The past remembers the future.

Neapolitan is also a “language in the language”. There are many words of the Neapolitan dialect that are no longer used today. Words that our grandparents used, which once bothered us because they seemed vulgar. We are missing the same words today because they found our identity.

When we were young these words of the past were rough in our ears and we made fun of those who used them. For example, I remember the word Muccaturo which in Italian means handkerchief. This word comes from the Catalan mocador and also from the French mouchoir. The Muccaturo empirically makes the sense of dirt, of that dirt that comes out of your nose. The rheum you emit when you sneeze end up right there, in the cotton handkerchief that was kept in the coat pocket and washed only when it had become unusable. To me the image of the muccaturo was really annoying and I remember that when I was a child it scared me, because I didn’t know how to use it when I had a cold. But it is also true that it was of great help to me, because the tissue (the clinex) irritated my child’s skin. The muccaturo was really useful, practical, perhaps unhygienic but safe and faithful. Today in Naples nobody talks about it. The handkerchief is called ‘o fazzuletto (from italian: fazzoletto) and almost all citizens use the paper handkerchief.

Another word that is part of the old Neapolitan is Crisommola, which in Italian means apricot. Crisommola derives from the Greek χρυσοῦν μῆλον (chrysoûn mêlon = golden fruit), and it is a really strange way to call a fruit. The crisommola is perhaps one of the most beautiful fruits. Sweet, orange, tender and soft. Yet the Neapolitans called it this word, difficult to pronounce and annoying to the ears. Today nobody uses the word crisommola. Almost everyone in Naples says “Albicocc” (from Italian Albicocca). It may happen that some greengrocers want to clarify the terminology, specifying that what they are selling you is just a kilo of crisommola. I’ve always made confusion between orange and apricot. Because in Naples the apricot is called crisommola and the orange purtuall (in the past in Naples the oranges were mainly imported from Portugal). And at lunch and dinner almost all my family corrected me because I did not know how to distinguish between the two fruits. I admit that even today I am very confused and tend to never use these two words. Yet crisommola and purtuallo make better the sense of origin, the roots of the words of the Neapolitan language.

Another old word that always made me smile is Mustacce (which in Italian means baffi ) and derives from the Byzantine Greek moustákion and the French moustache. In Naples, the Mustacce are those very thick baffi, the ones that used people in the 1800s and that made a man a real man. All the men in the old portraits and photos have the “mustacce” and those same men were proud to wear them. Today the Mustacce are confused with the beard and represent a single image of masculinity.

Having mustaches meant being grown up, going from childhood to adolescence.

An adult man absolutely had to have mustaches.

Why is it so important to remember the words of the past? Those words make our story and also help us to understand the present.

It is always said that the past was a better place than the present. I can’t say if this statement is correct but I definitely know that Neapolitan cannot be a language that belongs only to the present. The Neapolitan is the past that always returns, the future that calls the past, the present that exists only thanks to what has been and what will be.

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English Familiarity Greece History Intimacy Italian Language Latin Napoletano Napoli Neapolitan Negozio Neighbourhood Senza categoria Shop Teacher

A Puteca from Latin Apotheca

Any child raised in Naples has heard this phrase at least once: “Piccerillo, vai n’attimo ‘a puteca e accatta nu piezzo e pane” (honey, go to the grocery and buy a piece of bread).

The piccerillo involved is almost always unaware of what a puteca is and why it is possible to buy bread right there. In the Neapolitan language ‘a puteca is a shop where you can buy basic necessities. You can often find it near your house and buy what you need cheaply.

It may happen that among relatives and friends this word is pronounced to identify different places where you can shop. For example, my second-class uncles (zio Vincenzo and zia Maria) used to have a shop where they sold detergents and soaps. And throughout the neighborhood where they worked (the Borgo Vergini neighborhood), their shop was known as ‘a puteca.

This word therefore has different values and meanings according to the place and the importance it occupies. I remember, in fact, that my uncles’ detergent shop was very very small. The intimacy of that place made it magical and welcoming, so as to earn the name of ‘a puteca.

We have already said in the previous articles that the Neapolitan language is able to accept words of other languages and to transform the meaning of these words and adapt them to the style of Neapolitan culture. Puteca (in Neapolitan) comes from the Latin word apotheca, which in ancient Rome was used to indicate the shop. Puteca also has origins in the Greek word ἀποθήκη (apothéke) which always means shop. But how did this word take root in the other European languages deriving from the Latin strain? In France, for example, it has become the word boutique while in Germany we find that apotheke is used to indicate a pharmacy.

Could some tourist or foreigners in Naples get confused? Actually not. The presence of the puteca sign outside the shops of the Neapolitan city is really rare.

‘A puteca is an intimate name, recognizable only among the Neapolitan population, which indicates a shop where there is often not even a sign. In Naples, in fact, you just have to say “Sto andando alla puteca di Tonino” (I’m going to Tonino’s shop) to make others understand where you are going. Be careful, though! A person can say that is going to the puteca of a certain person only if it moves in the same neighborhood. For example, if I live in the Sanità district and say that I am going to Gennaro’s puteca, whoever listens to me knows that I am going to Gennaro’s shop who works in the Sanità. But if I say that I’m going to the puteca of a Gennaro who does not have a shop in the Sanità but, for example, in the Fuorigrotta district, I must specify that I am going to the puteca of Gennaro but the one located in the Fuorigrotta district.

Walking through the alleys of Naples it is still possible to find some puteca. These are those shops that are always open, small and dark, where goods abound and overflow from the walls. Often merchants display what they sell even at the entrance of the shop, amassing objects on the sidewalk. We are talking about almost mythological places, rich in history and memories that make Naples a unique place in the world.

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