Meaning of nickname Dadone

[tomassid]

My family called my greatgrandfather Dadone and for years I though it was slang for grandfather, but just found that is not so. Nonno is the term. Anyone know what the term "Dadone" might mean? His real name was Nicandro or Nick in American so its not a derivative of his name.

[February]

I can't help with a translation of Dadone, my Italian is very basic at best.

But your question reminded me of a story that an Italian-American acquaintance told me. He was visiting with relatives in Italy, and asked to use the bathroom. He spoke Italian, and used the word his family used at home "bacausa" - to his Italian relatives' puzzlement. He found out later that the word was an accented version of "back house" that dated back to when folks used outdoor facilities. If no one can help with a translation of Dadone, it might be possible that it is a corruption of an English word.

[AngelaGrace56]

My family called my greatgrandfather Dadone and for years I though it was slang for grandfather, but just found that is not so. Nonno is the term. Anyone know what the term "Dadone" might mean? His real name was Nicandro or Nick in American so its not a derivative of his name.

What town was your greatgrandfather from? I am wondering whether “dadone” may have been a dialect word for Greatgrandfather? The Italian word for greatgrandfather is “bisnonno” and grandfather is “nonno”. We use to say ”nonno rande” in our town which isn't too different but if you look at the following you will see some very different dialect words used for bisnonno:

basavon (Friuli-Venezia-Giulia)
besàf, bisaf, bisau (Lombardia)
bisaviu (Sardinia)
Catanannu (Sicily -San Salvatore di Fitalia)
nannàvu (Sicily)
nononne (Puglia)
vavòne (Abruzzo)


Just a thought. There are bound to be lots of other dialect words out there for greatgrandfather which we don't know of.
Angela

[liviomoreno]

In Italian the suffix -one is an augmentative: porta is door, portone is a big door.
Dad is father, Dad-one is a big father, a grandfather

[AngelaGrace56]

hehehe
Ingenious Livio! You are so good with words. And so great grand father would be?
Angela

[PippoM]

I agree with Livio!

[AngelaGrace56]

Whoops! Time to eat humble pie. (I misread the “wink” and thought you were joking Livio. Apologies.) (I'm starting to diminish here.)

Incidentally, I remember a man in our town called Francesco was always referred to as Frank-one (big Frank) because he was such a big man.
Angela

[liviomoreno]

[CastelliCrew]

This name has been a major source of frustration for my family over many years. My great-great grandfather (Gregorio) was called 'Dadone' for most of his life. The whole family tree called him Dadone. No translation of the word or reference to this word is on the internet. Your original post here is all I could find referencing Dadone as a nickname of some sort.

That said, our only guess is that it may be a nickname specific to the region of Italy that they immigrated from. Since it seems to be only a couple three people who have the same question in reference to a nickname, perhaps they came from the same town originally?

Or, might it just be a casual made up affection nickname like Boo, or Sweetie. Perhaps the word was taken from someone with that last name. Like, 'he's such a Dadone,' and it stuck. Akin to a Melvin or Mulligan.

We may never know.

[justinfrombklyn]

My Grand mother me told me her father Antonio was called dadone or dadon it meant a titleship meaning the word Don which is used as sir. he was from Naples so I believe the dadon meant Don Antonio or whatever the first name of the person was. i was used as a nickname among friends and business associates.