Why wop

An epithet used for those of Italian descent. Many Italian immigrants had no papers to identify themselves and were branded as WOPs. Toronto slang for a "customer", specifically a customer who is willing to buy drugs. Derived from the word " chop " which means "drug transaction ", a wop is the client who receives the drugs in exchange for money.

Very often confused with the word wop which is a racist derogatory term towards Italian people. If you showed up at Ellis Island, walked without a limp, had money in your pocket, and passed a very simple intelligence test in your own language, you were admitted. OK, so where did the word wop come from? The most plausible explanation and the one which most linguists now hold, is that it was a distortion of a word that Italian immigrants themselves used and Southern Italians still use today.

When Americans overhead immigrant workers addressing each other as guappo, or wop, they eventually began using it as a derogatory word to describe all Italians. As for dago, this word also predates the Italian diaspora of the early s. Dave Wilton, writing for wordorigins. Dago comes from the Spanish given name Diego, and over time has extended in meaning to include Portuguese and eventually Italians. It dates to the s.

Wilton further points out that in E. Arrowson has got every Dago, and Greaser, and nigger against me. Of course, I was also worried that my fellow Italian-Americans would find it offensive if I had used wop in my title, so I was inclined to discard it anyway.

Why do some people find wop and dago offensive? It all has to do with the disparaging way these words have been used in the past. They were spoken as insults, and people got the idea and were justifiably insulted. In the same way, African-Americans now avoid the word Negro which means black in Spanish and, of course, its even more degrading derivations.

Some Irish-Americans now say that being called a Paddy in America is an insult, even though it is common for the Irish in Ireland to use that term in describing themselves. If the word is used as an insult in some contexts, it comes to be seen as demeaning in most contexts. I was fortunate enough to grow up in an age and community where it was considered cool to be Italian, thanks to famous singers, celebrities, politicians and sports stars of Italian origin.

Most of my non-Italian friends had never even heard the terms wop or dago, so for those of us with Italian blood, these were words spoken with a smidgen of pride, showing that we belonged to a special ethnic group. And we did, of course, and indeed still do. Read more here:. More nicknames and disparaging words. PriscillaFaith October 27, at PM. Tayphad May 8, at AM. Unknown October 3, at PM.

Join us for the next minute webinar on December 9th at The peer-to-peer support provided through WOPs is proving to be of indisputable value to the crisis response of public operators. Nevertheless, the health crisis has confronted the WOPs concept with unique challenges of its own. Travel restrictions in most countries worldwide are making it difficult for partner utilities to implement their capacity-building activities on the ground.

Within this context, the flexible and resilient character of WOPs has become apparent. Partners are adapting project activities as well as communication and coordination mechanisms to the existing circumstances.

In doing so, they can ensure the continuity of mutual support to address their most urgent needs.