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.
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.
what the heck:
February 16th, 2015 at 9:01 pm
the word Fugazy has been around since the the late 60s in the NY automotive industry. two words that are still being used as 2015 is C-Lawyer one who advises (acts like a lawyer) a customer on what they should do when buying a car. the 2nd is Fugazy when a customer would give you info for his credit application and if the loan was turned down buy the bank the sales person would say the customer was a Fugazy that’s why he didn’t get approved
Back in the 70s I worked on the bowery jewelry district. We called a fake diamond a fugazy because wait for it… it’s like the black stretch limo you were expecting to show up when you called Fugazy limousine but instead a van showed up to take you to the airport – a fake limo
edmund:
February 5th, 2016 at 11:44 pm
I got Fugazi mixed up with the Munster episode where Grandpa discovers that the emerald ring Marilyn is wearing is the cursed Fregosi Emerald. He also discovers the curse can only be removed by a living member of the Fregosi family, the last of which lives in Detroit and runs Fregosi Motors.
John:
May 2nd, 2016 at 4:44 pm
Fugazy
I was in Vietnam, Class of March 69, and never heard the term there. I’m not sure when I first heard it but it was used by contractors (probably Italian) in Brooklyn/Queens in the ’80s or ’90’s. I always believed it referred to Bill Fugazy of Fugazy Limousine. I’m in industrial real estate in Brooklyn and Queens and knew vendors to Fugazy, who had a wide reputation for not paying bills. One of my clients was a limousine coach builder who converted town cars to stretch limos, repaired them, etc. He pointed out several that he would not release to Fugazy because he had not been paid. Also, the late billionaire John Kluge of Metromedia, once a very close friend of Fugazy, sued him for fraud in the sale of a business to Kluge. Kluge got a $50m judgement that drove Fugazy into bankruptcy and said at the time that Fugazy could not organize a two car funeral. Fugazy lost his appeal and later went to jail for lying in his bankruptcy petition. If that ain’t a fugazy, what the heck is? Oh, in yet another fugazy, Bill Clinton pardoned him upon leaving office in 2001.
Fred H:
March 3rd, 2017 at 10:37 pm
In the director’s commentary for Donnie Brasco, Mike Newell says the following about the use of the word “fugazy” in the film:
“Fugazy” is a completely invented word. Everybody thought that it was real; kind of real mob speak. It’s not at all. It’s the name of a limo service in New York. No, it’s a con, writer’s con.
Unless someone can produce a verifiable citation for the use of the word before the release of the film in 1997, I’d say that’s definitive.
TANSTAAFL:
February 6th, 2018 at 9:50 am
One never says “On the third hand”
The correct term is “On the gripping hand”
See “The Mote In God’s Eye” by Pournell & Niven.
Zebra Dun:
February 6th, 2018 at 11:56 am
Greetings, As a young Marine during the Vietnam era I never heard the word Fugazi used for anything.
I did hear FUBAR, Mickey Mouse and SNAFU along with BOHICA all the time.
I believe in the movie Starring John Wayne one of his Marines was named Fugazy “Sands of Iwo Jima” 1949.
I’ve heard WW2 vets use the phrase.
Fugazi is most likely NYC Italian slang from WW2
Old fart:
February 6th, 2018 at 1:32 pm
Fougasse (wiki) is a primitive bomb. In Vietnam, it was a 55 gallon drum of gasoline and detergent buried atop explosive. Like napalm when exploded.
MaliceInWonderland:
February 7th, 2018 at 11:44 am
It’s from the Italian.
The guy on the street corner selling fake handbags isn’t going to be there tomorrow. He’s fugace.
What started out as a description of the seller or business practice eventually came to describe what was being sold.
Lex Icann:
October 20th, 2021 at 3:47 pm
Wikipedia won’t even MENTION the limo company! I can’t believe this is still unsettled. When I read the book forty years ago, I knew exactly what he meant and the context. I think he even explained in the book. Fugazy was a limo service.
There is no Italian word before that.
There’s no GI Slang.
There’s no band, no contraction (although Fucrazy is a good one)
It’s the limo company. End of story. As little kids in Westchester, we mimicked those tv commercials.
William:
January 27th, 2022 at 3:47 pm
Not that Joe Rogan is an authority on this, or anything else, but he gave an explanation that makes sense (no clue why he’s sure about his answer). He said Fugazy got caught passing bad checks, and that’s how the company became synonymous with “fake.” No clue where he got his theory.
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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.
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.
what the heck:
February 16th, 2015 at 9:01 pm
the word Fugazy has been around since the the late 60s in the NY automotive industry. two words that are still being used as 2015 is C-Lawyer one who advises (acts like a lawyer) a customer on what they should do when buying a car. the 2nd is Fugazy when a customer would give you info for his credit application and if the loan was turned down buy the bank the sales person would say the customer was a Fugazy that’s why he didn’t get approved
Daniel:
December 25th, 2015 at 8:38 pm
Back in the 70s I worked on the bowery jewelry district. We called a fake diamond a fugazy because wait for it… it’s like the black stretch limo you were expecting to show up when you called Fugazy limousine but instead a van showed up to take you to the airport – a fake limo
edmund:
February 5th, 2016 at 11:44 pm
I got Fugazi mixed up with the Munster episode where Grandpa discovers that the emerald ring Marilyn is wearing is the cursed Fregosi Emerald. He also discovers the curse can only be removed by a living member of the Fregosi family, the last of which lives in Detroit and runs Fregosi Motors.
John:
May 2nd, 2016 at 4:44 pm
Fugazy
I was in Vietnam, Class of March 69, and never heard the term there. I’m not sure when I first heard it but it was used by contractors (probably Italian) in Brooklyn/Queens in the ’80s or ’90’s. I always believed it referred to Bill Fugazy of Fugazy Limousine. I’m in industrial real estate in Brooklyn and Queens and knew vendors to Fugazy, who had a wide reputation for not paying bills. One of my clients was a limousine coach builder who converted town cars to stretch limos, repaired them, etc. He pointed out several that he would not release to Fugazy because he had not been paid. Also, the late billionaire John Kluge of Metromedia, once a very close friend of Fugazy, sued him for fraud in the sale of a business to Kluge. Kluge got a $50m judgement that drove Fugazy into bankruptcy and said at the time that Fugazy could not organize a two car funeral. Fugazy lost his appeal and later went to jail for lying in his bankruptcy petition. If that ain’t a fugazy, what the heck is? Oh, in yet another fugazy, Bill Clinton pardoned him upon leaving office in 2001.
Fred H:
March 3rd, 2017 at 10:37 pm
In the director’s commentary for Donnie Brasco, Mike Newell says the following about the use of the word “fugazy” in the film:
Unless someone can produce a verifiable citation for the use of the word before the release of the film in 1997, I’d say that’s definitive.
TANSTAAFL:
February 6th, 2018 at 9:50 am
One never says “On the third hand”
The correct term is “On the gripping hand”
See “The Mote In God’s Eye” by Pournell & Niven.
Zebra Dun:
February 6th, 2018 at 11:56 am
Greetings, As a young Marine during the Vietnam era I never heard the word Fugazi used for anything.
I did hear FUBAR, Mickey Mouse and SNAFU along with BOHICA all the time.
I believe in the movie Starring John Wayne one of his Marines was named Fugazy “Sands of Iwo Jima” 1949.
I’ve heard WW2 vets use the phrase.
Fugazi is most likely NYC Italian slang from WW2
Old fart:
February 6th, 2018 at 1:32 pm
Fougasse (wiki) is a primitive bomb. In Vietnam, it was a 55 gallon drum of gasoline and detergent buried atop explosive. Like napalm when exploded.
MaliceInWonderland:
February 7th, 2018 at 11:44 am
It’s from the Italian.
The guy on the street corner selling fake handbags isn’t going to be there tomorrow. He’s fugace.
What started out as a description of the seller or business practice eventually came to describe what was being sold.
Lex Icann:
October 20th, 2021 at 3:47 pm
Wikipedia won’t even MENTION the limo company! I can’t believe this is still unsettled. When I read the book forty years ago, I knew exactly what he meant and the context. I think he even explained in the book. Fugazy was a limo service.
There is no Italian word before that.
There’s no GI Slang.
There’s no band, no contraction (although Fucrazy is a good one)
It’s the limo company. End of story. As little kids in Westchester, we mimicked those tv commercials.
William:
January 27th, 2022 at 3:47 pm
Not that Joe Rogan is an authority on this, or anything else, but he gave an explanation that makes sense (no clue why he’s sure about his answer). He said Fugazy got caught passing bad checks, and that’s how the company became synonymous with “fake.” No clue where he got his theory.