# Looking for well-recognized examples of "mafia lingo"...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 7, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582 "2003-05-07T03:46:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/1 "2003-05-07T03:46:50Z")
I am working on an advertising piece for someone and am looking for well known examples of TV and Hollywood versions of mob and ganster language. Things like “Fuggedaboutit” and “Swim with Fishes”. You know what I mean.
Any ideas?
---
### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/2 "2003-05-07T05:25:05Z")
Actually the term is usually “sleeps with the fishes,” not “swims.”
🙂
Here is a great website with lots of hard-boiled slang, even though most of it isn’t very modern:
[http://www.miskatonic.org/slang.html](http://www.miskatonic.org/slang.html)
---
### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/3 "2003-05-07T12:12:58Z")
Bada-bing, bada-boom.
---
### Author:  [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/4 "2003-05-07T13:08:22Z")
Wiseguy, eh?
---
### Author:  [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/5 "2003-05-07T13:32:52Z")
“We’re going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
---
### Author:  [@green\_bladder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_bladder)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/6 "2003-05-07T15:00:42Z")
Cosa Nostra
Goomba
To hit the mattress
Capo
Omerta
Loads of classic mafia lingo [here](http://www.gambinofamily.com/mafioso_lingo_001.htm)
---
### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/7 "2003-05-07T15:19:27Z")
“fugazi”=fake
“That diamond ain’t real, it’s a fugazi!”
---
### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/8 "2003-05-07T15:47:53Z")
off the top of my head I can only come up with “whack,” “made,” and “cement shoes.”
---
### Author:  [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/9 "2003-05-07T16:00:32Z")
Is there a difference between “clip”, “whack”, and “get him wet”?
It would be nice to know, if I killed somebody, that I could get a shorter sentence because I just got the guy a little wet, but I didn’t exactly _whack_ him…
---
### Author:  [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/10 "2003-05-07T17:21:49Z")
HBO’s web site for The Sopranos has a [glossary](http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/wernick/mafiainsider/mobspeak.shtml) of words, both mafia slang and some of the legal terms one hears on the show.
---
### Author:  [@auntnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntnut)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/11 "2003-05-07T19:39:46Z")
\*\*“Sudden de-acceleration syndrome”
(throwing someone off a building)
“concrete poisoning”
(same as above)
---
### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/12 "2003-05-07T20:14:32Z")
One of the Sopranos episodes was called “The Telltale Moozadella” – but the word was never used or explained in the episode, and it’s not in any of the mob-lingo glossaries linked above. Does anybody know? What’s a moozadella?
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/13 "2003-05-07T20:48:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by BrainGlutton \*
> What’s a moozadella?
It’s-a da cheese you put onna you pizza, you goomba.
---
### Author:  [@Carter\_the\_Great](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carter_the_Great)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2003, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-well-recognized-examples-of-mafia-lingo/173582/14 "2003-05-08T00:39:13Z")
oh oh oh I got one… Mamaluke…
I’m not sure what it means…
I know a Marmaluke was a moorish soldier.
The only times I’ve heard it used was the same connotation as “goomba”.