Damme ‘o canzo(dammi il tempo), means Give me timeand it’s a phrase that Neapolitans almost always say when they are angry. Because in Naples almost nobody bears to do things quickly and if someone puts pressure on another then this will be the answer you will hear.
Canzo almost certainly derives from the French chance which in the French language has the same meaning as English and that is “opportunity”.
We have talked several times about the ability of the Neapolitan language to carry out semantic translations on the words that the dialect has taken from other languages, especially from those belonging to the peoples who dominated the city of Parthenope. The Neapolitan translation takes on the meaning of that word, transforming it according to the needs of the Neapolitan citizen.
The word opportunity, in fact, would not have been very appropriate to the Neapolitan language, while binding time to the possibility of doing something makes the idea of something better that must be accomplished with appropriate conditions.
Let’s see when canzo is used by the Neapolitans. We are in a typical Neapolitan family, husband and wife are arguing about the arrangement of new furniture in their living room. The wife is hurrying her husband, telling him every five minutes that she doesn’t like the way he is arranging the furniture. Here then that the Neapolitan husband, after enduring the wife complaining all day, will explode in an ironic controversy by saying to his wife Damme ‘o canzo, that is give me at least time to do what I’m doing and after you will have all the right to complain about my job.
Or canzo can also be used in a hypothetical way. We are in a workplace, the boss is telling his employees to do more things at the same time and to do them as quickly as possible. One of the hardworkers can’t do it all together quickly and then starts to get angry and says to his boss “se me dai ‘o canzo…”that is if you give me the opportunity to do my job calmly I will do whatever you want and I will get my job done.
And finally, the ironic and hypothetical phrase (suspended here as a warning, an admonition) can also be accompanied by the phrase ‘na vrenzola’ ‘e parola (a simple word) when, in a discussion, one person is taking over the other without giving him the opportunity to reply. “If you give the canzo’ to say ‘na vrenzola ‘e parola …”, I will explain everything and I will know how to justify what you are accusing me.