guappo

guappo

Guappo (plural: guappi) is a historical Southern Italian criminal subculture and informal term of address in the Neapolitan language, roughly analogous to or meaning thug, swaggerer, pimp, braggart, or ruffian. While today the word is often used to indicate a member of the Camorra, a Mafia-type organisation in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy, the guapperia (or guapparia; i.e., the guappo subculture) predates the modern Camorra and was originally a different and separate criminal subculture that considered itself very much independent of the Camorra.Historically, "guappo" referred to a loosely cohesive 19th and early 20th century subculture that thrived in the Naples area and, to a lesser extent, nearby regions of Southern Italy. The subculture stereotypically consisted of a type of boisterous, flashy, swaggering, free-spirited, and violent yet dandy-like criminal, pimp, outlaw, and ruffian that nonetheless followed a chivalrous code of honor.

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