From Guinea to Ginzo?

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

Stephen Boatti writes: By the way, what about "guido?"  Italian-
Americans use it  to disparage especially low-class members of their
own group ["he's a real guido"], but I know non-Italians use it as
well. "Guido" happens to be a fairly common Italian first name,
corresponding to "Guy."

        I lived for 20 years in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, in a
neighborhood that was about one-half Italian and one-half Jewish.  My
family and I were among the few who were able to answer "neither of
the above" to the question "which sort are you"?  (One Easter season,
at a Brownie Scouts meeting held in the local Catholic church, the
leader asked my daughter if she was Catholic.  She said no.  So while
most of the other little girls made Easter cards for their mommies,
my daughter was given a secular project, since "No, I am not
Catholic" was routinely translated as "Yes, I am Jewish".)
        In any event: I would hear "guido" on the streets there rarely.  I
can recall hearing "goombah" (from "compare", one who is affiliated
with you through being godparent to a child), but only once: an
election day, probably in the very early 80s, a local, I think a
teacher at the grade school, said something about "all the old
goombahs coming out to vote".
        My daughter spent 6 years in that grade school -- my son also -- and
when she was in college her roommate for at least two years was the
daughter of immigrants from Italy.  Through her influence or
otherwise, my daughter began using the word "cugine" (= "cousin") for
an uncouth Italian-American.  This would have been about 1990.  I
suspect that this word may have been used in a movie at the time,
because more or less simultaneously I heard it on the streets several
times.  The only other occasion I can recall now is being in a small
shop in the neighborhood when a couple of high-school age boys met a
third.  One exclaimed "Hey, cugine, how are you."  He may have used
the expression spontaneously, maybe they were cousins, but I had the
impression that he was playing the role.  I don't think I have heard
the word since, but I moved out the neighborhood in about 1994.

        These terms illustrate two of the great sources of designations for
other folks: quaint names commonly used by them, as "Paddy" or "Mick"
for an Irishman, and strange words they are commonly heard saying, as
"Joy" for an Irishman, not that that term has been much used over
here.  Or the French calling the English "les goddams".

GAT