Word: vaffanculo
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Before exploring the reverberations of the verdict - and since we know we can get away with it on an American website, even without the Court's ruling - it is worth being a bit more precise: the Italian word in question is vaffanculo. Unlike the Italian high court, though, we will not deconstruct the exact significance of what is affectionately abbreviated as "vaffa" when the irritation is a bit less extreme. It is an expression that has survived in one dialect form or another down generations of Italy's millions of emigrants around the world (it is known by its Sicilian...
...word the "most expressive" in the English language, which he says can communicate anger, surprise, dismay and so on. In Italy, vulgar expressions are used rather frequently on national TV (not just cable). Even before this week's ruling, comedian and activist Beppe Grillo had declared Sept. 8 "Vaffanculo Day" to organize a protest against the sclerotic political establishment. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lets vulgar expressions slip out in public about twice a year. Still, with Italy's deep Catholic roots, profanity that takes God's or Christ's name in vain is widely frowned upon, and has cost...
...court's ruling said that "such frequent use" of vaffanculo and other merely vulgar expressions has created a kind of "inflation" where they have lost their original obscene and/or overtly hostile significance, even while "impoverishing language and manners." The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that "obscene" speech does not enjoy First Amendment protection, and may in certain cases be criminal to express. Still, at least one of the nine U.S. justices, Sicilian-American Antonin Scalia, has some personal experience to work from. Last year when a reporter asked what he had to say to his critics, the brilliant judge responded...
...There was more than just dancing in the streets--in Milan many danced on the rooftops of cars. Throughout the celebration thousands shouted cheers in unison. "I-TAL-IA! I-TAL-IA! I-TAL-IA!" they shouted over and over again. Or for the more vulgarly minded: "Brasilia! Brasilia! Vaffanculo...
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