One of our newspaper columnists used the word chumbolone, which I found in Doubled-Tongued Dictionary to be a slang to mean "idiot." It seems to have an Italian etymology. Have you seen it used? Neither Shu nor I have, though our son says he hears it all the time. It isn't in Onelook or the OED.
December 22, 2008, 05:10
tsuwm
I think you've got something circular going on there, as the DTD cites the Chicago Tribune.
December 22, 2008, 06:38
arnie
Yes, it seems to be the favourite all-purpose word of the Tribune's columnist John Kass.
Calabrese said he met with several tough guys, including Outfit loan shark and former Chicago Police Officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle. Twan was convicted in Family Secrets for passing key information on an Outfit murder to Calabrese's brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., while the FBI was recording their conversations.
(Ironically, Twan invented the term "chumbolone," which he insisted means stupid idiot.)
It doesn't look like an Italian word, the letter combination ch is pronounced /k/ and only appears in front of the vowels e and i, e.g., che 'who, whom, which' /ke/, chi 'whoever' /ki/. I guess the u is being pronounced as a schwa. The -one ending is an augmentative suffix in Italian (and some related endings in other Romance languages) and usually has pejorative connotations.
—Ceci n'est pas un seing.
December 22, 2008, 07:52
goofy
The Double-Tongued Dictionary mentions ciambellone, a kind of Italian cake.
December 22, 2008, 08:06
zmježd
ciambellone
A ciambella is a kind of ring cake, so I guess ciambellone might be some kind of term for doughnut, the favorite food of law enforcement in Chicago and environs.
—Ceci n'est pas un seing.
December 22, 2008, 09:57
arnie
I wonder, is chumbolone perhaps a variation of chump turned into cod-Italian?
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
December 22, 2008, 11:03
Kalleh
I hadn't gone through all the Google sites, but, you're right, it seems to come from Chicago and especially from that chombolone, John Kass. (I hold my nose every time I read his factless, but opinionated, articles.)
December 23, 2008, 12:00
<Proofreader>
Don't take this as gospel, since I am not Italian. I asked my wife, who is Italian, if she had ever heard of the word. She hadn't. However, she wondered if it was a corruption of strombolone, which (aqccording to her limited Italian language skills) means "oafish" or "clumsy." Now THAT'S Chicago!
December 23, 2008, 18:12
<Asa Lovejoy>
Ask the guys on Car Talk. They know all about being oafish Italians.This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Asa Lovejoy>, December 24, 2008 11:06
