Sicilian Culture: The News: NIAF Gives HBO Agita

Sicilian Culture

The People, The History, The Culture

The News & Views
(February 28, 2000)
From: Richard Annotico: NIAF gives HBO Agita
THE BASE TENOR OF 'SOPRANOS" TALK ON LANGUAGE
By William Safire, The New York Times
What's a goomah, and how does it differ from a goombah? Is the adjective skeevy somehow related to the slang noun for underwear, skivvies? Does the come -heavy Mafia talk on television give you agita?
These are words from the HBO television series "The Sopranos," which I first turned to hoping to hear a rendition of the mad scene in "Lucia di Lammermoor." The show is centered on a relentlessly foulmouthed fictional Mafia family with the surname of Soprano. My interest is in the writers' adoption of a lexicon that is loosely based on Italian words, a little real Mafia slang and a smattering of lingo remembered or made up for the show by former residents of a blue-collar neighborhood in East Boston.
"Goombah is derived from compare, 'godfather' or 'dear male friend,' "says Frank Renzulli, co-executive producer and a writer of the show. "Southern Italians tend to make the c a g, so compare becomes gompare. Dropping the last letter is very Neapolitan, so it becomes goompar and then goombah." Robin Green, another executive producer (it's hard to figure from the titles who is the show's capo di tutti capi), contrasts the "godfather" meaning of that word with goomah, which she defines as "mistress." She adds, "The language we're using is from the neighborhood, a street language that's bastardized Italian -- American forms of Italian words."
I ran goomah past Jimmy Breslin, the Newsday columnist who wrote "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight," and he confirms the "alternative wife" sense. While I had him on the phone, I tried come heavy, which Jimmy defined as either "bring money" or "come armed"; the show's legion of executive producers prefer the latter.
Agita means "acid indigestion." In that regard, skeevy comes from schifare, to disgust. The name of the mob leader's boat is Stugots, which Entertainment Weekly defined as "idiot," but which has a meaning closer to the Spanish cojones, "the courage symbolized by primary male sex characteristics."
That should be enough to get you through a couple of episodes, unless the other endless, unoriginal obscenities get you down. HBO's parent company, Time Warner, had a useful glossary of what the executive producers call their mobspeak on its Web site, but the understandably offended National Italian American Foundation all but mock-whacked the corporate brass who -- suddenly afflicted with agita -- removed the offensive page.

HOME

Search || News & Views || People || History || Region || Language || Food || Cinema || Links || Contact Info