The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3) (63 page)

Dannazioni
—Sicilian word for damn or damnation. In Italian, it’d be dannazione. So, close enough. Sounds about the same.

Deficiente
—Not just a motherfucker, but a dumb motherfucker. Usually used to refer to someone who did something especially moronic or dangerous.

Diavolo—Hell.

Dio
—God.

E odio anche te
—And I hate you too.

Ehi
—Hey. You know when American Italians say “Eh!” all the time when they run into each other? It comes from a real fucking word. Imagine that. I don’t think most of them know that, but still…

Figlio di puttana
—Son of a bitch. Technically son of a whore, but you get it.

Figli di puttana
—More than one figlio di puttana. (See above.)

Finirà
—It will end.

Grazie
—Thank you.

Io passo
—I’ll pass.

Italiana
—Italian woman.

Italiani
—More than one Italian.

Italiano
—Italian man.

Maledizione
—Curse. As in, curse you! It’s used sort of like damn or damn it. My ma liked this one a lot. She was always cursing us. Maybe she should’ve thought that through a little better. (Note, don’t tell Nova I said that, but you have to admit, I gotta point.)

Maronna
—The Sicilian version of Madonna, or Madonna mia. Basically, it’s calling out to the Mother for help, but it’s blasphemous. It’s the Carlo equivalent to Madonn’, which is a little more New York Italian and a little less old-school Sicilian like Maronna. The don says Maronna too. A lot of old-school Sicilian gangsters do.

Medda
—Shit in Sicilian. Carlo’s way of saying merda.

Merda
—Shit. (Note, yes, I know. It sounds a lot like mierda, which is shit in Spanish. A lot of words are similar; it’s why I understand it so easily. Well, that and growing up in El Barrio.)

Minchia
—Dick in Sicilian. Very universal and used a lot like cazzo or fuck. Clearly we like swearwords revolving around cocks and balls. Big shock.

No, vai a fanculo tu! Uscite! O vi farò buttare fuori!
—No, fuck you! Get out! Or I’ll have you thrown out! (Note, if Carlo had known Lola was Italiana, he would’ve expected this response before he told her to fuck off. Nova told me he called her a troia too. I do
not
want to know what Carlo had to do to make it up to her.)

Nonno
—Grandfather. Not to be confused with godfather, unless you’re lucky enough to be me. Then they’re one and the same.

Pezzo di merda
—Piece of shit.

Piccolo
—Little one, but often used the way the term baby is here by mothers or, in my case, brothers who picked up the bad habit. Youngest children know what I’m talking about, when you end up being “the baby” until you’re twelve. Same thing, only in Italian.

Piccolo succhiacazzi
—Little cocksucker. (Jesus, I hate this one. HATE IT. I’d rather be called a guinea forever. It’s such a disgusting insult. I hate it for so many reasons, not the least of which was it being Dominic Brambino’s favorite one to toss at me, but tag piccolo in there. Ugh.)

Porca puttana
—Dirty whore or dirty bitch. We use it sort of like son of a bitch. It’d be porca buttana in Sicilian.

Preferirei mangiare merda piuttosto che leccare i tuoi stivali
—I would rather eat shit than lick your boots. (I stand by that twelve years later, by the way. I would literally
eat shit
before I’d lick a Brambino’s boots, and Nova would too, ’cause you guys have no fucking idea just how much we hate those motherfuckers. Some days, I hope I end up in hell just so I’d get eternity to hurt them.)

Pronto
—Ready. As in, I’m ready, or hello. It basically means I’m ready to listen. So speak already. It’s how we answer the phone in Italian.

Puttana
—Whore. Bitch. Similar to puta in Spanish and used just as often. This is one of Nova’s favorite insults. He calls everyone puttana, particularly men, which Carina says makes him a sexist asshole since it means female whore, and is the equivalent to bitch in English, but he’s using it as an insult towards men. She probably has a point.

Puttane
—More than one puttana. (See above.)

Puttaniere
—A male slut or a male whore if that’s what you want to call it. A man whose primary motivation in life is to fuck. Only Italians would need an insult like this, and it is used all the time. We’ve all been called a puttaniere. I know I have. Nova has too. Sometimes we say it when we look in the mirror, and it’s not a compliment. It means you’re a cretino who only thinks with his cock and balls, so basically, every Siciliano ever.

Sapevo che era stata lei
—I knew it was her.

Sei bellissima
—You are beautiful.

Sei pazzo
—Are you crazy?

Sí
—Yes. Just like in Spanish.

Siciliana
—Sicilian woman.

Siciliani
—More than one Sicilian. Depending on who you talk to, they may claim to simply be Sicilian and not Italian. In case you haven’t noticed, we have some issues there. I consider myself Italian. Very Italian. They don’t get to steal my heritage because they’ve got issues. I consider myself Sicilian too, but everyone has a different opinion, and I respect that.

Siciliano
—Sicilian man.

Solo io
—Only me.

Solo tu
—Only you.

Solo noi
—Only us.

Stai zitta
—Shut up, directed at a woman. I wonder how
that
turned out?

Stai zitto
—Shut up, directed at a man.

Sticchiu
—Sicilian for pussy.

Stronzo
—Male asshole.

Stronza
—Female asshole. You don’t hear this one too much, maybe because calling an Italiana an asshole isn’t too great for your health. Don’t believe me? Go call my sister stronza and see what happens.

Stronzate
—Bullshit.

Strunzu
—Asshole in Sicilian. It’s the Sicilian version of stronzo.

Sucami a minchia
—Suck my dick in Sicilian.

Succhiacazzi
—Cocksucker.

Testa di cazzo
—Dickhead.

Tette
—Tits.

Ti amo
—I love you. It’s a romantic I love you. It’s the one you say to the woman you adore, and that’s it. So basically, these are the two words you’re likely to never hear leave Nova’s mouth. Ever.

Ti voglio bene
—I love you. This is the affectionate way to say it, rather than romantic like ti amo. This is how you tell your brothers you love them.

Troia
—Whore. The dirty, nasty version of whore. Almost better translated into cunt whore. This is a throw-down, cruel insult that will get a gun shoved in your mouth if you say it to the wrong person. I’m serious; don’t test this one on me. Call me a whore or a puttana all day, but I gotta fucking tic over this one that makes my trigger finger itchy. Though it means the same, puttana is not nearly as harsh as troia. (See above.) Nova calls me puttana all the time. He’d bite off his own tongue before he called me a troia.

Va tutto bene, piccolo. Andrà tutto bene
—It’s okay, baby. It’s going to be okay. (No fucking wonder you couldn’t get Nova to do the dictionary. I forgot about this. Thanks for bringing it up. And it’s right under troia. Awesome.)

Vafanculu
—The Sicilian version of vaffanculo. This is how a Sicilian tells you to fuck off. Depending on how they say it, this one should make you a little nervous. They could be playful, or they could be very serious, which would mean you should actually take their advice and
fuck off
.

Vaffanculo
—Fuck off. (Usually said while flipping your hand under your chin and then giving them the middle finger. A lot of Italian has accompanying hand gestures. I know people make jokes about Italians talking with their hands, but there is some of it that has actual meaning.)

Vai a fanculo
—Go fuck yourself.

Zii
—More than one uncle.

Zio
—Uncle.

Cosa Nostra Terminology and Street Slang

Note from Tino: The information contained in this guide was obtained through academic research and does not, in any way, indicate any sort of personally obtained knowledge of the internal workings of Cosa Nostra, criminal activity, drug use, etc. (In other words, I’m not a narc, and I’m not a wiseguy. So the Borgata and the feds can just back the fuck up. It’s a fucking story. That’s it. Made-up. I’ll swear on a thousand stacks of Bibles that none of the shit in these books is true anyway.)

Administration
—The upper-level management of a crime family. Usually consisting of the don (boss), capo bastone (underboss), and the consigliere (advisor). It’s all about the bottom line with them, and shit always rolls downhill from the administration. Also, many of the rules in Cosa Nostra revolve around protecting the administration, but despite that, historically there are a lot of bosses who have gone down. Feds will give just about anyone a free pass to grab someone from the administration of a crime family, and it works more often than it should. The old man has done over ten years in federal, and that’s light for a don. It’s a fucking miracle Nova hasn’t gone down as capo bastone, but no one’s sold him out. (Note, selling out Nova would be very bad for your health. Don’t think I can’t find you. There are a lot of dead motherfuckers who made that mistake.)

Associate
—An associate is someone who works with an organization but is not an actual member of the mob. The power and influence of an associate are vast. For example, if you’re just the drug dealer up the street, paying out a cut to the capo in charge of the area, you have no power, but if you’re someone like Chuito, who is now a known confidant to the capo bastone of the Moretti crime family, that’s a different set of issues. There have been associates who’ve gained great power in an organization, even if they weren’t Italian. Think Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. They were both Jewish but gathered huge amounts of power and authority with the Italian mafia. It’s all about playing your cards right and allying yourself with the right powers that be, ’cause shit can change very quickly in the Cosa Nostra. (Note, not playing your cards right is a good way to end up dead. There aren’t too many Meyer Lanskys in history. Most associates are expendable should a mafia war break out. They aren’t protected like a made man is.)

Blow
—Cocaine. (The rich man’s drug. In case you didn’t know, a cocaine habit is expensive as hell. Upside is coke will make you very productive. It’ll also wreck your life if you hold on to the habit for any extended period of time. I don’t recommend blow. Drink coffee instead.)

Borgata
—The family. Used in mafia circles to refer specifically to a crime family—one with an established upper-level administration, soldiers, associates, etc. There are different Borgatas. Some are small; others, like the Moretti crime family, are very large, with capos, soldiers, and associates in most major cities.

Boss
—This word has a million different meanings, but at the end of the day a real boss is probably someone you should respect. In the Cosa Nostra, boss is another term for the godfather. (Can also be referred to as don or father in Italian.)

Burner phone
—I’m a big fan of the burner phone. It’s essentially a prepaid phone that you keep for a few days or weeks and then toss for the next burner phone. In doing this, it makes you very hard to track. Cosa Nostra believes, with good reason, keeping a cell phone in your pocket is like carrying the government around with you. Carlo never carried a cell phone, even a burner, but we’re in the modern fucking age. I use a
lot
of burners.

Candy
—Code word for drugs, particularly cocaine. Like real candy, the rule of thumb is never to take candy from strangers. You never know what they cut it with to save their bottom line. Trust me on this; dealers will cut cocaine (and other drugs) with some very nasty shit to save their bottom line. You’d be lucky to get baking soda. Very lucky. (Note, it’s extremely rare to get pure cocaine, unless you’re the grandson of a don. Then it’s a perk of the job.)

Capo bastone
—Underboss. Just like it sounds, the capo bastone is the vice president of the mafia, but in this scenario, the vice president isn’t just sitting around waiting for the old man to kick off. He handles all the shit, big and small, that goes into running a crime family. For big families like the Morettis, more steps need to be taken to protect the don, which means the underboss is the one who takes more risks, makes more decisions, and essentially puts himself out there as a moving target to distract the feds and other enemies from the don. That’s why Nova’s on the commission. It’s the reason he’s the one who handles the capos. The don is supposed to be invisible, protected at all costs. The underboss, in contrast, is almost like a decoy who got stuck doing all the work. Underboss is a shit fucking job if done right. (My father never did it right. The don was always picking up his slack until Nova took his spot.) Bet you didn’t know that’s what Nova was dealing with all this time, but he owns it…like a boss.

Capo dei capi
—Boss of all bosses. Literally translates in Italian to head of all heads. This is a very old-school term, one given to the few godfathers who gained so much power they held supreme authority over the entire Italian mafia organization in America, which essentially means they controlled most of the underworld. This is a lot of power for one individual, and it can create a lot of tension, as crime families only like to recognize their own administration as their ruling party. I think another capo dei capi rising to power is a dead ideal, as in, not really possible anymore no matter how much it’s romanticized. Nova likes to say anything is possible, but let’s get real. A play like that would have to be epic, and even if they did succeed, holding it down would take a powerhouse administration.

Caporegime
—Almost always shortened to capo. Can also be called a skipper, or lieutenant. A capo is the leader of a crew in the mafia. Crews often run independently, doing their own thing, making money, but on regular intervals they will have to give a taste (a cut) to the administration. A capo will usually have an area they work for the Borgata, or in other instances a specialty within the Borgata. Gambling, theft, guns, drugs, unions, etc. There are also capos who run legitimate businesses. Particularly in our family, over the past many years, shock of shocks, a lot of our money is made legitimately. Of course, the accountants will often use the capos who are running legit crews to funnel dirty money, so don’t get the wrong idea. The Moretti family isn’t going straight by creating all these legit crews. They’re hiding the money from the feds, but that’s complicated. It has Nova’s name written all over it and makes me faze the fuck out when he talks about it. Anyway, capos who make more money have more power and respect. Some suck; others rock it out like a motherfucker. A good underboss (Nova) will often try to help them be as efficient and profitable as possible. Nova does all right with this. I haven’t met a capo yet who didn’t love him. Considering they’re all rich, and their money is pretty and clean and legit looking to the government. Nova is what we like to call an overachiever when it comes to mafia work. He protects his capos.