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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:The Joy of Lex
Notice:A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:THEBAY::SYSTEM
Created:Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1192
Total number of notes:42769

432.0. "Bacigalupo" by GLIVET::RECKARD (Jon Reckard 264-7710) Thu Nov 12 1987 09:13

        A neighbor of mine as I was growing up had a last name of
    Bacigalupo (still does, I guess).  I've also heard that name in an
    Abbott and Costello routine (two points if you can quote the sequence).
        A co-worker of mine, of Italian descent, mentioned that an uncle
    of his uses that term adjectivally? of a person.  (So much so, his
    mother-in-law has acquired the nickname Batchy.)
        So what does it mean?
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
432.1LDP::BUSCHThu Nov 12 1987 13:288
                                -< Bacigalupo >-

    Abbott and Costello had a TV series in the 50's (I think) in which one
of the regular characters had that name. I'm not sure, but he might have been
the grocer (?).  Don't know what it means.

Dave
432.2Kissing wolves ugh!MLNOIS::HARBIGMon Nov 16 1987 06:0315
               Well here goes .....
               Bacicalupo is an Italian surname.
               Literally translated it means "one who kisses a wolf"
               so used as an adjective it could be used to describe
               either a person who is so naive and loving that they
               would even kiss a wolf i.e. ingenuous or so courageous
               that they would do the same thing.
               It could depend on what region of Italy the uncle mentioned
               in the base note comes from.If it's a region like Abruzzo
               where in hard winters the wolves still come down from
               the mountains to attack sheep they probably have a lot
               of popular sayings about wolves.
               Being a mother-in-law I hope it doesn't mean "she's got
               a kisser like a wolf" :-).
                                           Max
432.3Aren't wolves and dogs closely related?GRNDAD::STONERoyMon Nov 16 1987 10:075
    Re: Kissing wolves.
    
    I've heard of a few guys who were so hard up that they would 
    occasionally date a real 'dog'!  Do the Italians have a similar
    expression?
432.4Delicious Wolves ?MLNOIS::HARBIGMon Nov 16 1987 11:2114
               Unfortunately the Italian equivalent for 'dog'
               in this context is even more uncomplimentary
               as they use 'cesso' (pronounced chesso) which
               is also the the slang for WC.
               However they are fairly devoid of sexism in this
               as women also use it regarding men and, let's face
               it lads, probably they've got more reason to. 
    
               BTW if the word is split another way baci -- galup
               baci still means kisses or to kiss but galup (gahloop)
               is old Piemontese (Turin area) dialect for something 
               absolutely delicious.
    
                                                     Max