# What's a walyo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 5, 2010, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993 "2010-04-05T05:37:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/1 "2010-04-05T05:37:52Z")
I’ve currently been re-watching each season of **The Sopranos** , and have heard, from time to time as the show’s commenced, characters refer to other mobbed-up characters as “walyos”. Initially, during the early seasons, I thought they were saying “Y.O.”, but I’m on the last season right now (where the subtitles are generally more accurate) and I see that it is, indeed, “walyo”. So. Anybody know what it means or refers to? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/2 "2010-04-05T06:44:44Z")
From “[The Sopranos: A Viewer’s Glossary](http://www.ggjaguar.com/glossary.pdf)”: > [@](#): > > “Whyos” – (American slang) – the Whyos (“Why-oh’s”) were one of five of five major gangs in New York City, specifically Manhattan, in the late 19th Century. Though not an Italian-based word, it was used frequently in the show beginning in the third season. The people who do subtitles don’t always know what they’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/3 "2010-04-05T14:38:57Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > From “[The Sopranos: A Viewer’s Glossary](http://www.ggjaguar.com/glossary.pdf)”: > The people who do subtitles don’t always know what they’re talking about. A _thousand_ thanks for the link and the info! I’m in OC heaven! ---
**Author:** ![pmastra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@pmastra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pmastra)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/4 "2010-08-14T00:57:57Z")
I didn’t know about the “Gangs of New York” reference but when I was a kid my grandfather (an Italian immigrant) used to call me “walyo”. I know a couple of other guys, Italian-Americans like myself, who also were referred to by that name. I always had the sense that the meaning of walyo was “boy”, with a slightly derogatory spin, as in I, the walyo, was somehow not of the same social stature as my grandfather who used the term. In fact, I can remember that my friends and I would sometimes call each other walyo by way of affectionate ball-busting. Barbara Grizutti Harrison also mentions walyo in her book, The Italians. While I don’t remember well what she had to say, I seem to recall that the word derives from Moorish influence in Sicily some centuries ago. ---
**Author:** ![segaretto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@segaretto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/segaretto)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/5 "2013-12-22T17:51:35Z")
I have seen the Sopranos subtitles use “walyo”, and that’s how it sounded to me when I heard Carmela Soprano say it. Also when I was a child, my mom - whose parents came from Italy - would sometimes affectionately call me “walyo”. I wished I had asked her then if she knew the derivation of it. Anyway, a similar-sounding word in Italian is “Voglio”, meaning " I want…" , which Italians pronounce “Volyo”, sometimes with the “l” so soft you can barely hear it. Given that little kids say " I want…" a lot, it seems to me the Italian “I want…” could have been the derivation: affectionate or maybe slightly derogatory for a kid. Then later in life a kind of a ball-busting way to call someone a “kid” or “boy”. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/6 "2013-12-22T18:38:34Z")
> [@segaretto](#): > > Anyway, a similar-sounding word in Italian is “Voglio”, meaning " I want…" , which Italians pronounce “Volyo”, sometimes with the “l” so soft you can barely hear it. Given that little kids say " I want…" a lot, it seems to me the Italian “I want…” could have been the derivation: affectionate or maybe slightly derogatory for a kid. Then later in life a kind of a ball-busting way to call someone a “kid” or “boy”. Walyo doesn’t come from Voglio, it comes from Guaglione, which is Neapolitan for “boy, young man”, but is also sort of used casually for “guy”, so if you’re saying somebody’s _un bravo guaglione_, you’re saying he’s a good guy. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/7 "2013-12-23T02:18:47Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > From “[The Sopranos: A Viewer’s Glossary](http://www.ggjaguar.com/glossary.pdf)”: > The people who do subtitles don’t always know what they’re talking about. But they do ! The subtitle person knew their Italian . Whyo came from the Neapolitan dialect “guaglione” . Along the way it _was_ “walyo” . See [http://sbp.so/yo](http://sbp.so/yo) ---
**Author:** ![Gemrides](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gemrides](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gemrides)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/8 "2023-02-03T17:00:16Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > See [http://sbp.so/yo](http://sbp.so/yo) ☹ Unrelated link ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/9 "2023-02-03T17:03:07Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, @Gemrides. Please note that the post you are replying to is from 2013, and the thread itself dates to 2010. Don’t expect links from almost a decade ago to still be functional. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2023, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/10 "2023-02-03T17:04:00Z")
The domain name has been usurped in the 9 years since Isider posted that. [This](https://web.archive.org/web/20130512113134/http://sbp.so/yo) is what it looked like back then. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/11 "2023-02-04T02:27:03Z")
Okay. We know what a walyo is. Now why do Egyptians talk about them in that Bangles song? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/12 "2023-02-04T09:24:07Z")
Is that a sincere question? Every lyric site I checked had the background lyric as “way yo, way yo, way oh way yo” or something very similar. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-walyo/534993/13 "2023-02-04T14:44:18Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Now why do Egyptians talk about them in that Bangles song? Great. Now I have The Swinging Erudites playing in my head.