Monday, January 28, 2013
CLASSIC SICILIAN - AMERICAN
Any descendant of turn of the century Italian immigrants should know the word for this. It was later used as the word for 'toilet'. But first, the correct words are:
bagno - pronounced BAH-nyo, which could also mean 'bathroom' or 'washroom'
gabinetto - pronounced gah-bee-NET-toh, which could also mean 'cabinet' or 'washroom'. (reading it back, it sounds way too close to my surname!)
Now for the all time classic Sicilian-English word: baccauso, which is pronounced 'bahk-KOW-zoh'. It originally meant 'back house', which was where the above structures could be found. In his book 'Mount Allegro', Jerre Mangione told the tale of when he visited Italy and getting a very puzzled look amongst his relatives when using this word.
Other slangs for 'bathroom' are 'peesh-a-TOO-dah' and 'kah-kah -TOO - dah', but I would suggest not using them in mixed Italian company.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment