wop

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Italian guappo (“bully, swaggerer, dandy”), a word of the southern Italian dialects, especially Neapolitan and Sicilian,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} though the OED and the Oxford Dictionary of English call the origin uncertain.^[8][9] The OED gives the regional Italian forms vuappo and vappo, with southern guappo recorded from 1841 and now also used in standard Italian.^[8] The Italian word is commonly traced to Spanish guapo (“bold, handsome; dandy; pimp, ruffian”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} while the OED takes the Spanish word, recorded from before 1651 in the sense "rogue", as related and only an influence on the form guappo.^[8] Both go back, perhaps through a dialect word of French, to Latin vappa (“wine gone flat; a worthless fellow”),^{[3][5][8][6][7]} which is related to vapidus (“flat”), the source of vapid.^[7][6] The OED and the American Heritage Dictionary compare Old French vape (“feeble, insipid”) (13th century), also gape,^[8][3] and the American Heritage Dictionary also compares Walloon wape (“insipid”), perhaps with influence from Frankish *hwapjan (“to spoil”).^[3] Dictionary.com suggests that the initial w may be due to association with a related Germanic word.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An Italian: 1906, in the New York Sun of 16 February, as the nickname of a juvenile delinquent, "Oscar the Wop" or "Oscar the Dago".^[8][10][1] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1908,^[2] Etymonline to 1912,^[7] and Dictionary.com to 1910–15, as an Americanism.^[5]

Semantic evolution

According to Wilton, Sicilian immigrants brought the word to North America at the turn of the 20th century, where it was often used of work bosses and then of labourers, and its American use began in New York City and spread from there.^[10] The OED notes that in early American use it could mean any foreigner or immigrant, and more generally a person from any southern European country;^[8][11] Wiktionary records its later spread to Canada, Australia and Britain.^[1] The adjective, Italian or southern European, is recorded from 1907,^[8] and Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes "that wop second baseman" from 1912.^[12] The noun was applied to the Italian language from 1916.^[8] A 1908 "Italian novelty song" was titled Wop, Wop, Wop!.^[10]

Timeline

• 1906 – an Italian, or a person of Italian descent; in early American use also any foreigner.^[8][10] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1908 and Etymonline to 1912.^[2][7]
• 1907 – adjective, Italian.^[8]
• 1916 – the Italian language.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (offensive, slang) A contemptuous term for an Italian or a person of Italian descent, and more widely for anyone from southern Europe.^[4][2][5][8]
2. (offensive, slang) The Italian language.^[8][11]

Adjective

1. (offensive, slang) Italian, or southern European.^[8][11]

Related words

• vapid

Usage notes

The dictionaries label the word offensive and disparaging.^{[2][4][5][11]} A popular story explains it as an acronym, for example of "without passport" or "working off passage", which Wiktionary calls backronyms formed from the word.^[1] Etymonline says that the word is probably not an acronym and that the story seems to date only from about 1985,^[7] and the OED calls the suggested acronym origins without foundation.^[8] A separate RAF slang word wop, a wireless operator, is an acronym of wireless operator, recorded from 1939.^[8][11] Wop is also a variant spelling of whop.^[4][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Wilton, Dave, Wordorigins.org, wordorigins.org, p. "Wop", 31 August 2021
11. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com