Wop
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An epithet used for those of Italian descent. WOP stands for WithOut Papers. Many Italian immigrants had no papers to identify themselves and were branded as WOPs.
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(n) a racial slur for an Italian or person of Italian heritage. It is often said that this term comes from With Out Papers or Working On Pavement, but it actually comes from the Italian word guappo, meaning a swaggerer, pimp, or ruffian.
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“WOP” is the English pronunciation of the Ital-Neapolitan word “GUAPPO”. The word defines those who belong to the Guapperia o “Camorra”, a criminal organization similar to the Sicilian Mafia located mostly in the province of Campania (an Italian Province) and its capital Napoli, Italia. The term is still commonly used especially in Central-South Italy (Meridione) to describe those that either belong to the organization or those that are arrogant to the point of inducing a fight. It was brought to the USA by early Italian immigrants from the province of Campania who named those suspected to belonging to the Guapperia “Guappi”, in a similar fashion the Sicilians used the term “Mafiosi”. Widely used in Chicago where most immigrants from Campania settled, one of its native sons Al Capone was a typical Guappo, it was confused by the non Italian population to indicate people of Italian origins, similarly the word “Paesano”. The term has been erroneously explained to mean “Without Papers” because of the initials “WP” by those, Italian descent or not, that have little knowledge of Italian history and dialects. The term has taken a derogatory meaning in North America and for many refers to people of Italian origin or background.
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a racist term to describe the Italians.
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an ethnic slur toward people of italian descent
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The act of a female dancing and swinging their arms and bouncing their gluteus maximus in a way to arouse all men watching.
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An Italian or other southern European.
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