Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Used as a disparaging term for a person of Italian birth or ancestry.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as whop.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK, US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur A person of Italian descent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Italian descent

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian dialectal guappo, thug, from Spanish guapo, handsome, dashing, braggart, bully, from French dialectal wape, rogue, from Latin vappa, flat wine, scoundrel.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Neapolitan guappo ("dude, stud"), a greeting borrowed from Spanish guapo ("bold, handsome"). Erroneously attributed to the initialism Without Papers.

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Examples

  • That the band wears their hearts on their sleeves while singing doo-wop is awesome enough; the fact that they write decent songs is all the more remarkable.

    Music (For Robots): September 2006 Archives 2006

  • That the band wears their hearts on their sleeves while singing doo-wop is awesome enough; the fact that they write decent songs is all the more remarkable.

    Oh yeah you talk too much! (Music (For Robots)) 2006

  • I'm guessing the folks telling you "wop" and "polack" jokes weren't actually doing so out of hatred so much as an attempt at bad taste fun...

    Eastwood thinks political correctness has made society humourless Ed Gorman 2009

  • Living in New Hampshire into my teens, I learned how far bigotry can go, to the point where white kids would be calling each other derogatory names based on their ancestry from long ago -- ie: the kid whose grandfather was from italy became a "wop" and the kid whose great great grandma was Irish became a "mick" etc.

    apples and oranges 2005

  • I named the guys Poison & Pain and they were hyping the crowd up behind me doing their "wop" and "running man" routines.

    EARL -The Autobiography of DMX Fontaine, Smokey D. 1984

  • It was a few hours later than this, as he stomped disconsolately about the darkened corridors swearing at cheerful doors, that he heard the "wop" said, and it made him very nervous.

    Life, the Universe, and Everything Adams, Douglas, 1952-2001 1982

  • He had been stomping around the Heart of Gold for days, and so far no door had said "wop" to him.

    Life, the Universe, and Everything Adams, Douglas, 1952-2001 1982

  • With a noise like a hundred thousand people saying "wop", a steely white spaceship suddenly seemed to create itself out of nothing in the air directly above the cricket pitch and hung there with infinite menace and a slight hum.

    Life, the Universe, and Everything Adams, Douglas, 1952-2001 1982

  • He was fairly certain that no door had said "wop" to him now.

    Life, the Universe, and Everything Adams, Douglas, 1952-2001 1982

  • There was a sad and terrible pause at this point in the conversation during which a hundred thousand people seemed unexpectedly to say "wop" and a team of white robots descended from the sky like dandelion seeds drifting on the wind in tight military formation.

    Life, the Universe, and Everything Adams, Douglas, 1952-2001 1982

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  • Pow in reverse.

    November 3, 2007