Semper Ubi Sub Ubi
13 comments on this post.
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RareBird:
June 6th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
The term “fugazed” or “fugazy” started in my circle of friends in Brooklyn in about ’72 or so. It was used in the movie Donnie Brasco by the Al Pacino character.
There was a TV commercial for “Fugazy Continental” which was delivered at the time by Bob Hope. He called himself “Bob Fugazy Continental Hope” in his pitch for this limo service. A few of the guys started saying “that’s effin’ fugazed” to imply that’s bogus or screwed up or weird or such to anything in general that rated an expression of disapproval or undetermined strangness. If you took a shot at the basketball net on the tree in front of “Baldies” garage and it hit off a branch and went in someone’s yard or on a roof or something, they’d say “that shot was effin’ fugazed–or that fugazy shot”. I never heard it being used outside of our block until Al Pacino said it in Donnie Brasco, so either it’s an extraordinary coincidence or our expression had legs. But it started with Paul Speciale or Anthony Agliano on E. 28th Street in Brooklyn in the early 70′s. To them I was “Big Jim”.
words1:
June 6th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Hi,
Thanks for your comment. I had to modify it slightly, substituting “effin” for the original form, because many elementary schools send students to this site. Silly, yes, but there it is.
I had forgotten that Bob Hope appeared in those commercials. I can hear his voice saying that line again.
I don’t doubt that you guys used that phrase, but you may not have been the only ones, since they were so impossible to ignore.
RareBird:
June 6th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I just am sure we didn’t inherit it because I was there when the phrase was applied thusly by the guys I mentioned in response to the commercial. I’m not saying it’s impossible that someone else didn’t wake up and give the phrase life in the same context, just that there was no time lapse between first introduction of the commercial and the use of the term in my circle–I saw it come into use from one of the two young men I mentioned but which I don’t recall exactly. My money would be on Paul.
MT Pockets:
February 13th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I’ve also heard the word “fugazy” since the 1970s in NYC. Any chance that it is a combination of “f**kin’” and “crazy?” I think not, but that’s what someone just told me.
Orange County Limo Services:
July 25th, 2009 at 1:01 am
fugazi is a term that is generally used by jewelers to describe a fake piece of jewelry. fugazi or fugazy like many words, it has more than one spelling. it is not a real Italian word instead I believe it is slang. either one is okay for spelling.
Jimbo:
January 3rd, 2010 at 12:51 am
I just saw the Donny Brasco movie and was suprised to hear the word “fugazy”. In the 70′s I used to deliver gasoline to the Fugazy Limo garage in Queens. The gas fill was too far from where we could back the gas truck into, so we had to add an extra length of hose to drop the load (which was illegal…and stupid). No legit gas company would deliver there, we were a “fly by night” operation. Thereafter, any time we did something dumb and crazy, it was called a “fugazy”. Don’t know if we started it, but we sure used it a lot back then.
Jeff:
May 23rd, 2010 at 2:16 am
My understanding of Fugazy. I grew up in Bergen county NJ and during the late 70′s and early 80′s there was a limo company that did a lot of ads for Fugazy continentals to the airport. I think it was like $19.95 for a limo to the airport. Problem was a lot of people called for a Fugazy Continental and a 12 passenger van with 8 other passengers pulls up in front of your house and you go with them or miss your flight. So a $19.95 luxury limo ride to the airport turns into an expensive bus ride.
From that time on I heard people refer to scamming someone or ripping them off as Pulling a “Fugazy”
EICHACKER:
November 14th, 2010 at 8:56 am
I always thought that the Fugazy phrase was just like Jeff from Bergen county said. I thought it might have been from cheesy franchise deals that ripped off the drivers. They took the name “Fugazy” and whored it out and the customers got the bus ride for 20 bucks.
Fred Wilson:
May 18th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Spot on! And thank you, thank you, thank you. Validation after all these years.
I felt the Fugazy Continental connection from the moment I heard Donnie utter the word. After more than a decade of fruitless Internet searches, finally, the mother lode of Lou Fugazy believers!
Cadillac vs. Lincoln also comes up repeatedly in the movie, leaving no doubt that, to the guys, a Lincoln Continental limo is fugazy.
admin:
September 11th, 2012 at 1:01 am
Hey, Lincoln Town Cars were awesome. Upper East Side, late night ride home to Brooklyn in a blizzard with a Russian driver with a Brahms fixation, doin’ 65 in the slush on the BQE — poifect.
admin:
September 11th, 2012 at 1:07 am
Apparently Fugazy Continental is now calling itself simply “Continental Limousines,” with “Fugazy” missing in action.
Sonny Red:
September 20th, 2012 at 12:26 am
Detective, I think that website is a Fugazy. The REAL Fugazy limo company can be found at http://www.fugazy.com
Bill Burke:
December 6th, 2012 at 11:58 pm
12/06/2012
As a student of Italian I immediately saw a resemblance to the phrase ‘Fu cazzo’, which can be translated to, ‘It was shit’.
In southern dialects like Napolitan and Siciliano the ‘c’ of cazzo would change to a ‘g’, the final vowel might be dropped in speech, and the separation of the two words would be easily lost.
Thereby bringing us to ‘fugazz’. Then perhaps the final -y is stuck on as a sort of English diminutive and we get fugazzy or even fugazy.
Just a thought.