Okay, we all know it from the movies or from the streets. I’ve seen it spelled in various ways but always pronounced the same: MARRON!
As in MARRON!, what a good sandwich!. MARRON!, my horse came in last!.
I never knew the exact translation but I always thought it was a convoluted “MADONNA!”. Kind of like the Spanish “Ave Maria!” Calling on the saints.
So, what’s the straight skinny on this? I need to know so the next time I eat a good sliceabeetz I know what I’m talking about.
Are you sure It’s not Madone?
Growing up in The Bronx, I heard it a lot and it was like saying Oh my God
Hey Neighbor!
I’m from The Bronx myself (181st & Vyse) so we’ve both heard the same thing. I know HOW to use it but I don’t know the literal translation. (and I bet 90% of those Dagos I hung out with don’t know either.) 
Mario just exclaims “Mama mia!”, doesn’t he?
I’m from the Bronx too (near Zerega Avenue).
That’s correct. The word is “Madonna!” but in southern Italian dialect is pronounced “Marone!” or similar. See here:
Other typical exclamations I learned from my goomba friends included “A fa Nabila!”, “Stugotz!”, and “Fungool!”
Bensonhurst boy here. I always heard “Marone” too but realized that it was just a very rolling “R”–it’s just the pronunciation of “Madonna!” with the final vowel elided and the “R” rolled.
(Boston Post and Dyre Ave here)
And again I always heard it as Madone short for Madonna
In the name of research and my not being positive,I contacted a Bronx Italian -my 93yo father- for translations
A fa Nabila! Means go to Naples!
Stugotz not really sure but gotz having to do with sh-t
Fungool F–k
All expressions he has not heard in years (he now lives in Fl)
Bensonhurst here. I remember getting a swat on the head any time I used that exclamation. My mother felt it was a no-no. Now it’s been made into a stereotypical TV greaseball thing so I try not to use it. Sometimes I slip up though and those around me will crack up(I live in Houston now).
I never took Italian, but in Spanish, Marron would sound very similar to what an English-only speaker would hear as Madone* a very quickly rolled ‘r’ can sound a lot like a d. Do they roll r’s in Italian?
*unless you were hearing an ‘eh’ sound at the end of it…then nevermind.
Right. As the link I posted says:
Most of the Italians in my neighborhood were from near Naples (like the Soprano family), and their native dialect would have been Campano.
Not really. It literally means “dick”:
I have also heard that it is derived from “testa di cazzo,” “head of the dick,” or dickhead.
Yes:
As for “goomba”:
My Dizionario Napoletano has “Marònna, n. pr., Madonna,” so I think your surmise is correct.
I’m Italian, so I think I can help out:
“Maronna” stands for “Madonna”, as in the Virgin.
What you hear as “stugotz” is in fact “stu cazz”, which is dialect for “'sto cazzo” and it means “no way!” (literally “this dick”)
What you hear as “va fungool” is “vafangulo”, dialect form of “vaffanculo” which means “fuck off” (literally “go get fucked up the ass”).
“Goomba” is “Cumpà”, dialect for “compaesano”, as Colibri righlty said.
So it sounds like final vowels are often elided, Ds are softened to Rs, and Cs are softened to sound like Gs.
Interessante.
“Marone” gets thrown around a lot on the Franky and Fritzy Show: http://www.wmob.com/ (a very amusing “show” thrown together from the mundane bits of FBI wiretaps of mafia suspects)
In my neighborhood, “capicola” is pronounced approximately “gabbagool,” “prosciutto” is “bruzhoot,” and “braciola” is “brazhool.”
For some of these, it was a long time before I connected the food with the the way it was spelled.
How about calamari and manicotti? 
Growing up with an Italian mother ensured that I was taught the proper way to speak.
Today I watched the doc There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011), and one in one of the 911 calls concerning either Diane Schuler’s erratic driving or the subsequent accident, one caller–whose last name I don’t recall, but it did end in a vowel–can be heard exclaiming “Marrone!”, which was the way it was spelled in the subtitles. Anyway, here’s a documented sighting.
Me too.
Ha! I just clicked on this thread not realizing that it was in fact my own question from over a year ago. :smack:
Well, since it has been resurrected I’ll add this. I don’t know wether to laugh or cringe when I hear a commercial for pizza or some other Italian dish that has “lots of mozzerella” pronounced matzah rella. To pronounce it properly it should almost be sung. Moht zoRELLA! Damn, now I’m hungry.
Speaking and singing are closely connected in Italy. They invented the operatic recitative so they could do both at once.