What is the meaning of Capeesh?
kdon...@my-deja.com
can't find the word in my dictionary.
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Before you buy.
SLHinton17
>
>As the title said, I want to know the meaning of the word, "Capeesh." I
>can't find the word in my dictionary.
********************
It's a slang word: as a question, it means "Do you understand?" As a
statement, it means "I understand." It comes from the informal Italian
_capito_, "I understand."
Sam Hinton
La Jolla, CA
Mirko
> can't find the word in my dictionary.
the correct spelling is 'capisc', and it's a popular slang word to say 'do
you understand ?'
in some regions of italy.
Bye
Mirko
Milano, Italia
Henry Churchyard
> As the title said, I want to know the meaning of the word,
> "Capeesh." I can't find the word in my dictionary.
It's a WW2 soldier slang version of Italian _capisce_ (pronounced
[kapishe]) which means "he/she/it understands, you singular understand"
(the honorific second person takes 3rd. sg. verb forms). As used in
English, it's a kind of pidgin interrogatige particle, meaning "Do you
understand what I'm saying?". (Another such was "savvy"...)
--
Henry Churchyard http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/
Henry Churchyard
> As the title said, I want to know the meaning of the word,
> "Capeesh." I can't find the word in my dictionary.
It's a WW2 U.S. soldier slang version of Italian _capisce_ (pronounced
[kapishe]) which means "he/she/it understands, you singular understand"
(the honorific second person takes 3rd. sg. verb forms). As used in
English, it's a kind of pidgin interrogative particle, meaning "Do you
Richard Fontana
>As the title said, I want to know the meaning of the word, "Capeesh." I
>can't find the word in my dictionary.
Most likely you mean a common representation of Italian "capisci"
meaning "[you] understand". The representation may reflect Italian dialects
where the final syllable would be dropped or nearly dropped. It is
always used in English to mean "Do you understand?"
Richard
rka...@adsl-151-203-22-73.bellatlantic.net
Often there's an air of threat to its use. (It's a bit like "Do I make
myself clear?" that way, although the latter tends to derive its force
from authority rather than might.)
Rachel
N.Mitchum
-----
> As the title said, I want to know the meaning of the word, "Capeesh." I
> can't find the word in my dictionary.
Americans know it as a Sicilian-Italian word meaning "understand."
Perhaps people say it in Italy, but they certainly say it in
American gangster films. We almost never see the word in written
form, but I find it in a slang dictionary spelled "capish" (though
of course it is indeed pronounced as "capeesh").
----NM
Richard Fontana
>kdon...@my-deja.com wrote:
>-----
>> As the title said, I want to know the meaning of the word, "Capeesh." I
>> can't find the word in my dictionary.
>>.....
>
>Americans know it as a Sicilian-Italian word meaning "understand."
>Perhaps people say it in Italy, but they certainly say it in
>American gangster films.
This is not Sicilian-Italian. I'm willing to be corrected on this
by an expert on Italian dialects, but my understanding is that the
tendency to drop or deemphasize final vowels is not characteristic of
Sicilian dialects, but is characteristic of dialects occurring in
Naples and in regions relatively close to Naples (including Abruzzo
and Molise as well as Campania). A Sicilian (or Calabrian) would
say something like "capisci", with three distinct syllables, for both
"capisci" and "capisce".
I also disagree with the implication that there's a close association
between "capeesh" and gangster films.
Though I am not prepared to do a survey, I don't think that "capeesh"
is particularly more common in gangster films than in other contexts
(other kinds of films having nothing to do with gangsters, cartoons
[where I think I first heard it], sitcoms, other kinds of television
shows, etc.), and I'm not even sure it particularly occurs in gangster
films, though I am not an expert on that genre.
I would not be shocked to find out that in classic gangster films
like "The Godfather" and "The Godfather II" the term "capeesh" doesn't
even occur. I'm no Ross Howard, but I've pretty much memorized the
"Goodfellas" screenplay, and I don't think there's any "capeesh" in that
great gangster movie. I can think of a lot of expressions I
associate with gangster films, but "capeesh" isn't one of them. So what
are the gangster movies which do use "capeesh"? Even if some minor
gangster movies exist which use "capeesh", what about all the non-gangster
movies which use "capeesh" without any reference to gangsters?
Indeed, "capeesh" is so commonly known in American English, from what I
can tell, and apparently has been for such a long time (i.e., before 1970,
prior to which time American gangster films did not focus on Italian
gangsters) that I contend it is not associated with gangster
films by the average person, unless the average person would make an
associative link between any Italian word, or any Italian dialect word,
and gangster movies. If the phrase was popularized by American
GI's who had been in Italy during WW2, which I think is unlikely but which
some have suggested, then certainly there's no implied causal or associative
link with gangster films to be made here. I say that's unlikely because I
think I've encountered "capeesh" in pre-WW2 American cultural materials,
but I'm not certain. It seems plausible to me that it may have been
introduced in Italian immigrant communities in the US prior to the onset of
WW2.
Richard
N.Mitchum
-----
> >Americans know it as a Sicilian-Italian word meaning "understand."
> >Perhaps people say it in Italy, but they certainly say it in
> >American gangster films.
>
> This is not Sicilian-Italian.
Didn't say it was. I said that this is how Americans know the
word. I've heard "capish" only in Mafia films or in apparent
allusion to Mafia films. Mafia means Sicily, so we conclude the
word is Sicilian. This says nothing about the correctness of the
conclusion.
-----
> I also disagree with the implication that there's a close association
> between "capeesh" and gangster films.
> Though I am not prepared to do a survey, I don't think that "capeesh"
> is particularly more common in gangster films than in other contexts
>......
Must be a matter of individual perception. When I think of
"capish," I imagine it coming from a godfather or wiseguy type.
Doesn't matter if the usage is actually uncommon in gangster films,
that's just where my imagination most commonly puts the word.
-----
> I contend it is not associated with gangster
> films by the average person, unless the average person would make an
> associative link between any Italian word, or any Italian dialect word,
> and gangster movies.
>.....
Well, I can speak for only one average person, myself, and can
tell you I do associate the word with gangster movies and I don't
believe it's the result of stereotyping.
----NM
Carl Perretta
N.Mitchum wrote in message <37FF90...@lafn.org>...
>Richard Fontana wrote:
>> I also disagree with the implication that there's a close association
>> between "capeesh" and gangster films.
>> Though I am not prepared to do a survey, I don't think that "capeesh"
>> is particularly more common in gangster films than in other contexts
Nobody mentioned the dialect pronunciation of this word. I grew up hearing
the word "gobEESH?" When somebody wanted to know if I got the message.
Richard Fontana
I've heard both; I think "capeesh" is more common than "gabeesh",
reflecting the mainstreamness of the word. It is common in
Anglicizations of certain Italian dialect pronunciations to
represent what I assume are just unaspirated voiceless sounds with the
voiced English counterparts, possibly only where they are not double
consonants and do not occur at the end of a word.
A few noteworthy examples of this (where it can be seen that the rule
is not consistently applied to the initial consonant) -- these would be
Abruzzese and Neapolitan-influenced Americanized pronunciations:
/br@'Zut/ prosciutto
/mAn@'gA.t/ or /m&n@'gA.t/ manicotti
/gAbA'goUl/ capicol-- er, I don't even know how to spell this
/pAst@v@'ZoUl/ pasta e fagioli
/r@'gA.t/ ricotta
/S@'bid/ scepide (insipido, i.e. "needs more salt")
RF
Larisa Migachyov
> As the title said, I want to know the meaning of the word, "Capeesh." I
> can't find the word in my dictionary.
It's from the Italian "Capisce" - meaning "Do you understand?" when placed
at the end of a question.
--
Larisa Migachyov
Quaternion Press Publishing House
Have a math question? Ask the Quaternion at
http://www.quaternionpress.com/mathhelp.html
Larisa Migachyov
> On Fri, 08 October 1999, kdon...@my-deja.com, wrote:
>
> >
> >As the title said, I want to know the meaning of the word, "Capeesh." I
> >can't find the word in my dictionary.
> It's a slang word: as a question, it means "Do you understand?" As a
> statement, it means "I understand."
Sorry - as a statement, it means "you understand". "I understand" would
be "capisco". The infinitive is "capire".
I wasn't expecting to stumble into alt.usage.italian.
Larisa Migachyov
> SLHinton17 wrote:
> > On Fri, 08 October 1999, kdon...@my-deja.com, wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >As the title said, I want to know the meaning of the word, "Capeesh." I
> > >can't find the word in my dictionary.
> > ********************
> > It's a slang word: as a question, it means "Do you understand?" As a
> > statement, it means "I understand."
>
> Sorry - as a statement, it means "you understand". "I understand" would
> be "capisco". The infinitive is "capire".
>
> I wasn't expecting to stumble into alt.usage.italian.
Oops - and it seems that I am in need of such a newsgroup. "Capisce" is
"he/she/it understands". "You understand" would be "capisci".
And now that I've made a total fool of myself...
SLHinton17
On Tue, 12 October 1999, l...@leland.Stanford.EDU (Larisa Migachyov)
wrote:
>SLHinton17 wrote:
>> It's a slang word: as a question, it means "Do you understand?" As
>a
>> statement, it means "I understand."
>
>Sorry - as a statement, it means "you understand". "I understand" would
>be "capisco". The infinitive is "capire".
**********************
You're speaking of Italian grammar: I was speaking of American slang usage (or
mis-usage, if you prefer.) An American father (probaby as ignorant as I am
about the Italian language) might say, in a threatening manner, "My daughter
must be back home by 11:00 o'clock, capeesh?" and the cowed date would answer
"Capeesh."