AboutFrancesco Marchesani Expertise I`m interested and have deep knowledge in Italian history, traditions and culture. I can answer your questions on my country`s language and literature, as well as Latin language and literature.
Experience I live in Pavia (northern Italy, near Milan) and have strong interests in my country's history.
Question My question has more to do with Italian-Americanisms; in other words, taking American English words and adding Italian suffixes. For example, at my grandmother's house at Sunday dinner (were talking early 1960's here)one of the adults would ask someone to pass the "mopina", which meant a dishtowel. Also, if we were misbehaving, they threatened to give us a, and I don't know the correct spelling, with a "scupalon(e?)". I have never heard these words uttered by any other of my 100% Italian friends, and I don't know if they were just peculiar to my grandparents' household, or if you can enlighten me as to the derivations of these words.
Thank you.
Answer Hello,
Italian-Americanisms are often based on dialectal words, more than standard Italian.
Scupalone, is not an Italian word, but might come from a regional word for "slap"; in some areas of Italy, for example, a similar word is used: scupon. In standard Italian, the word is "scapaccione".
Mopina, instead, is an example of how the English language was changed by Italian immigrants: often, English words were Italianized to an extent, in order to adapt them to the speakers' family language; so, mopina is clearly derived from mop, with an Italian suffix "-ina" meaning "little".
