Has anyone ever heard this expression?

[Julo]

I still don't know who this Botchgalup is supposed to be, I'm not into TV much but I can tell you that there was a famous Bacigalupo in Italy, he was a soccer player of the famous Torino team. In the year 1949 a plane crash took the lives of all the team's players.

[eyetalgal]

I think you may be referring to the surname Bacigalupo. I knew a family with that name in Brooklyn, they were from Genoa.

[Squigy]

I think you may be referring to the surname Bacigalupo. I knew a family with that name in Brooklyn, they were from Genoa.

Oh, no

Sorry for the confusion! Sophia Petrillo is a TV character from the 80's who referred to people as "dumb botchagaloops". It was clearly supposed to be a corruption of some Italian term.

[choprjohn]

I always thought botchagaloop meant kiss my a**

[Squigy]

I always thought botchagaloop meant kiss my a**

Not to my knowledge.

[misbris]

Mr. Bacigalupo was a character on the old Abbott and Costello TV show. It is very possible Lou Costello took the name from the soccer player or from a family he knew in NJ. It is a funny name and Abbott and Costello used wordplay a lot in their comedy.

I think the word became popular from the tv show and entered American slang as a name for a kind of bumbling person. This explains Sophia's use of it on the Golden Girls. I can remember my Nonno and uncles using the phrase "What a Bagagaloop" (in dialect) as a mild insult.

[Julo]

I think that this word, in some way got mixed up with the other italian insult:
MAMMALUCCO, which means stupid.
Bacigalupo is only a last name which many took as meaning something insulting.

[wldspirit]

I always thought botchagaloop meant kiss my a**

I remember something similar, sounded like botchamacula.....and I understood the translation as kiss my a**.......

[Squigy]

I always thought botchagaloop meant kiss my a**

I remember something similar, sounded like botchamacula.....and I understood the translation as kiss my a**.......

This conversation is degenerating fast, isn't it?

[Julo]

I always thought botchagaloop meant kiss my a**

I remember something similar, sounded like botchamacula.....and I understood the translation as kiss my a**.......

In Italy there's no such expression, which is typical american, but in Italy there are more colorful ones.

[redchief777]

Alright I'll add my own Italian descriptive terms I recall hearing relatives say during my childhood.

Jamoke [sp?] , I was never entirely sure what this meant. I thought fool.

Mittaganach [sp?] which may have loosely translated into "those darn Americans?"

My family was from Abruzzo

Redchief777

[Squigy]

There's another phrase I heard a lot, Caca. It was used for something gross, or something you shouldn't touch (like, "don't touch that, it's caca").

Anyone ever hear this one?

[donnawright]

Funny... Jamoke and caca were both used in my house. Jamoke was not flattering in any way, and caca referred to poopies.

[Squigy]

Funny... Jamoke and caca were both used in my house. Jamoke was not flattering in any way, and caca referred to poopies.

Makes sense, my mother said her grandmother used to say "do you have to caca" when asking somebody if they had to go to the bathroom.

As for Jamoke, I don't recall ever hearing that one.

[donnawright]

My mother is the one who used to say it. She was one of 6....3 born in Calabria and 3 in USA. She was born USA. I heard her mother say it, and she also said it. My dad's people came from Grosseto/Tuscany, and I never heard it from any of them. I sort of think Jamoke referred to calling someone a jackass.