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wop

[wop]
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noun Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive.
  1. a contemptuous term used to refer to an Italian or a person of Italian descent.
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Origin of wop

1910–15, Americanism; < Italian (Neapolitan dial.) guappo swaggerer < Spanish guapo pimp, ruffian, via dialectal French < Latin vappa wine that has gone flat, worthless person; initial w perhaps by association with a related Gmc word
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for wop

Historical Examples

  • "Don't forget to tell him how the wop licked the Jew," broke in the prisoner.

    From Place to Place

    Irvin S. Cobb

  • I wonder can they be talking French, maybe, or Wop, or something?

    Free Air

    Sinclair Lewis

  • I began filling the spoon, with the help of "Marty," the Wop.

    Steel

    Charles Rumford Walker

  • Even a dumb-head Wop gets his English rapidly when he's where he has to talk that or nothing.

    The Killer

    Stewart Edward White

  • Wasn't there a wop named Pizarro or somethin' what got lost down in Florida?

    Police!!!

    Robert W. Chambers

British Dictionary definitions for wop

wop1

noun
  1. slang, derogatory a member of a Latin people, esp an Italian
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Word Origin

C20: probably from southern Italian dialect guappo dandy, braggart, from Spanish guapo

wop2

verb, noun wops, wopping or wopped
  1. a variant spelling of whop
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for wop

n.

derogatory for "Italian," 1912, American English slang, apparently from southern Italian dialect guappo "dandy, dude, stud," a greeting among male Neapolitans, said to be from Spanish guapo "bold, dandy," which is from Latin vappa "sour wine," also "worthless fellow;" related to vapidus (see vapid). It is probably not an acronym , and the usual story that it is seems to date only to c.1985.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper