Talk:Dago

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The following passage was extracted from New International Encyclopedia.

Da'go A name originally given by sailors to Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians in general. It is said to be a corruption of the Spanish name San Diego, equivalent to the English name James, or Jack. By others it is supposed to be a title given exclusively to those born of Spanish parents. Still others believe it to be purely a corruption or nickname derived from hidalgo, which came to be applied to any foreigner from Latin Europe. Whatever the derivation of the word may have been, it is a term of opprobrium applied chiefly to the lower class of Italian immigrants in America.

I suppose that there are some obstreperous Wikipedians who object to the insertion of this passage from an American encyclopedia, however, I would say to them simply "toodle-ooh". Laments and comments have been excessively placed at the "ethnic slur" page named nigger. "Nigger" is (nowadays) thought to be "highly offensive." ("Racial integration" generated that particular bit of silliness). Da'go is more significant than "nigger" ever had been (and ever will be).

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

Superslum 13:00, 3 May 2006 (UTC

How can you saw that "dago" is "more significant than "nigger" ever had been (and ever will be")"??? How can you justify that assumption?

Rayghost (talk) 22:26, 26 April 2008 (UTC)Rayghost[reply]

My grandfather was one of those "lower class" Italian immigrants. He referred to his friends as "Dagos". My mother called her brothers "The Dagos". My sister calls me a "Dago". In High School, people referred to me and my friends as "Dagos". In fact, in my 50+ years, I have never met an Italian who was genuinely offended by its use, yet the dictionary says it's offensive. What P.C. liberal decided it was a disparaging term, I don't know.71.244.220.237 10:14, 12 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Superslum has been in run-down parts of cities from Hartford, Connecticut southwards to Pensacola, Florida westwards to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma northwards to Detroit, Michigan and many places within that large area of the eastern United States. People habitually say nigger throughout that large area, particularly in the northern cities. I think that comedian David Letterman earns plenty of money by speaking in hushed tones about the dangers associated with the use of "the N word." Superslum 06:38, 19 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I cannot verify this because it is pretty much impossible to really verify an ethnic slur anyway. However, I worked with two Italian-Americans at my former job (I am also an Italian). Both of them are in the 80's and said they believe the word Dago oringinated when Italians first immigrated over to America and originally took low wage jobs. These people were paid as the "day goes." Get it?

Anyway, it makes sense, especially in the New Orleans area where we find every way possible to shorten terms.

Americans call Latin Americans "dagos" too, it's not just in the UK, or at least they used to. I just read that Theodore Roosevelt, (in a derogatory manner), would refer to Colombians as "dagos". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.196.72.234 (talk) 04:13, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

On "Are You Being Served?: Do you take this man?",

premiered "11-29-1978", Mrs. Betty Slocombe (née Mary Elizabeth Jennifer Rachel Yiddell Abergavenny) (ladieswear senior assistant, Mollie Sugden), referred to her Greek bigamist boyfriend|fiance|fiancé as "dago".

Hopiakuta 19:23, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Saletta14 (talk) 16:34, 20 July 2010 (UTC) After twenty years in Rome, my relatives in England say that I've started speaking with 'a bit of a dago accent' and they certainly don't intend that as a compliment. To them a 'dago' would be anything of Latin origins, including Italians.[reply]

Expand, merge or redirect

This page is a mere dictionary definition (something which Wikipedia is not). It explains the meaning, possible origins and usage of a slang expression. I can't find any encyclopedic content on this page. Nothing here rises past what I would expect to read in a truly great unabridged dictionary. The definitions and usage discussions belong over in Wiktionary where folks with the right skills, interests and lexical tools can more easily sort out the meanings and origins.

Options to fix the page here include:

Expand the page with encyclopedic content - that is, content that goes well beyond the merely lexical.
Redirect the page to a more general page on the appropriate sub-genre of slang.
Replace the current contents with a soft-redirect to Wiktionary (usually done using the {{wi}} template).
Move the disambiguation page to this title and clearly point the lexical content to the Wiktionary page.

Pending a better answer, I'm implementing option 4 for now. Rossami (talk) 04:35, 1 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]