cafone

English

Etymology

From Italian cafone.

Noun

cafone (plural cafones)

  1. (US, slang) A boorish, uneducated Italian-American.

Italian

Etymology

Uncertain. Originally from southern Italy, compare Neapolitan cafone, Sicilian cafuni, possibly of Oscan origin.[1] Another theory traces it to the phrase c'a fune (literally “with a rope”), used to mock those from the countryside who would tie themselves to each other with rope to not get lost.[2] or Latin capio (“to capture”), the one who catches the sheep and goats with the loop.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /kaˈfo.ne/
  • Rhymes: -one
  • Hyphenation: ca‧fó‧ne

Noun

cafone m (plural cafoni, feminine cafona)

  1. peasant
  2. (derogatory) boor
    Synonym: burino
    • 2003, Antonio Tabucchi, chapter XXI, in Sostiene Pereira : una testimonianza [Pereira Declares], Rome: La biblioteca di Repubblica, published 1994, →ISBN, page 150:
      Alla censura sono dei cafoni, disse il direttore, degli analfabeti, il direttore della censura è un uomo intelligente, è mio amico, ma non può leggersi personalmente le bozze di tutti i giornali portoghesi.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants
  • → English: cafone (“uneducated Italian-American”, noun)
  • → Portuguese: cafona (“tacky”, adjective)

Noun

cafone f pl

  1. plural of cafona

References
  1. Accademia della Crusca (p. 1961), “cafone”, in Grande dizionario della lingua italiana (in Italian), volume 2, page 502
  2. Zarzycki, Ł. (2024). The Anatomy of Polish Offensive Words: A Sociolinguistic Exploration. Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company, p. 63;

Further reading
  • cafone in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams
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