I know it’s Italian. When I first heard it used it was in a negative way, ie, “He’s such a goomba (meaning idiot or whatever)”. Then I saw a TV show where one Italian-American said to his co-worker, who was also Italian-American, “Heyyy! Goomba!” and he used it as a greeting. I have tried looking it up in Italian & slang dictionaries but have never found it. I’m wondering if it’s sometimes spelled with a C- I know some Italians pronounce “G” as “C”. (My ex-sister-in-law used to pronounce “manicotti” “manigott’”.
Grazie! Ciao! (No, I’m not Italian, I just took it for a couple years in college)
According to JE Lighter, American Slang, it comes from the Italian compare. In American-Italian slang it means a “close or trusted male friend” and was popularized by Rocky Graziano, a boxer, who used to appear on the Martha Raye Show in the early 50’s.
He quotes it from the show as early as 1955.
Oh, yeah! The spelling is “goombah.”
I didn’t realize that. I assume that’s cognate with the Spanish compadre, literally, the godfather of your child (hence your “co-father”); colloquialy, a close pal. Often shortened, at least around here, to just “Compa’!”
SAMCLEM? Does your source have anything on STUGATZ and MORRONE too? I know that I use them correctly but I never knew what they ACTUALLY meant.
Would you please check those out too. Please, huh, maybe, huh,huh?
Thx.
Goomba is also one of Mario’s enemies (from Nintendo’s Mario Brothers). Goomba resembles a mushroom, which is why it roams the Mushroom Kingdom.
OneChance-- I’ve always wondered…“gomba” means “mushroom” in Hungarian. Hmmm…coincidence?