Comments on: Fugazy redux

By: Bill Burke

Bill Burke — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 04:58:20 +0000

12/06/2012

As a student of Italian I immediately saw a resemblance to the phrase ‘Fu cazzo’, which can be translated to, ‘It was shit’.

In southern dialects like Napolitan and Siciliano the ‘c’ of cazzo would change to a ‘g’, the final vowel might be dropped in speech, and the separation of the two words would be easily lost.

Thereby bringing us to ‘fugazz’. Then perhaps the final -y is stuck on as a sort of English diminutive and we get fugazzy or even fugazy.

Just a thought.

By: Sonny Red

Sonny Red — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 04:26:57 +0000

Detective, I think that website is a Fugazy. The REAL Fugazy limo company can be found at http://www.fugazy.com

By: admin

admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:07:51 +0000

Apparently Fugazy Continental is now calling itself simply “Continental Limousines,” with “Fugazy” missing in action.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:01:39 +0000

Hey, Lincoln Town Cars were awesome. Upper East Side, late night ride home to Brooklyn in a blizzard with a Russian driver with a Brahms fixation, doin’ 65 in the slush on the BQE — poifect.

By: Fred Wilson

Fred Wilson — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:55:22 +0000

Spot on! And thank you, thank you, thank you. Validation after all these years.

I felt the Fugazy Continental connection from the moment I heard Donnie utter the word. After more than a decade of fruitless Internet searches, finally, the mother lode of Lou Fugazy believers!

Cadillac vs. Lincoln also comes up repeatedly in the movie, leaving no doubt that, to the guys, a Lincoln Continental limo is fugazy.

By: EICHACKER

EICHACKER — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 12:56:35 +0000

I always thought that the Fugazy phrase was just like Jeff from Bergen county said. I thought it might have been from cheesy franchise deals that ripped off the drivers. They took the name “Fugazy” and whored it out and the customers got the bus ride for 20 bucks.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 23 May 2010 06:16:51 +0000

My understanding of Fugazy. I grew up in Bergen county NJ and during the late 70′s and early 80′s there was a limo company that did a lot of ads for Fugazy continentals to the airport. I think it was like $19.95 for a limo to the airport. Problem was a lot of people called for a Fugazy Continental and a 12 passenger van with 8 other passengers pulls up in front of your house and you go with them or miss your flight. So a $19.95 luxury limo ride to the airport turns into an expensive bus ride.

From that time on I heard people refer to scamming someone or ripping them off as Pulling a “Fugazy”

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:51:58 +0000

I just saw the Donny Brasco movie and was suprised to hear the word “fugazy”. In the 70′s I used to deliver gasoline to the Fugazy Limo garage in Queens. The gas fill was too far from where we could back the gas truck into, so we had to add an extra length of hose to drop the load (which was illegal…and stupid). No legit gas company would deliver there, we were a “fly by night” operation. Thereafter, any time we did something dumb and crazy, it was called a “fugazy”. Don’t know if we started it, but we sure used it a lot back then.

By: Orange County Limo Services

Orange County Limo Services — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 05:01:16 +0000

fugazi is a term that is generally used by jewelers to describe a fake piece of jewelry. fugazi or fugazy like many words, it has more than one spelling. it is not a real Italian word instead I believe it is slang. either one is okay for spelling.

By: MT Pockets

MT Pockets — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:49:26 +0000

I’ve also heard the word “fugazy” since the 1970s in NYC. Any chance that it is a combination of “f**kin’” and “crazy?” I think not, but that’s what someone just told me.

By: RareBird

RareBird — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:48:40 +0000

I just am sure we didn’t inherit it because I was there when the phrase was applied thusly by the guys I mentioned in response to the commercial. I’m not saying it’s impossible that someone else didn’t wake up and give the phrase life in the same context, just that there was no time lapse between first introduction of the commercial and the use of the term in my circle–I saw it come into use from one of the two young men I mentioned but which I don’t recall exactly. My money would be on Paul.

By: words1

words1 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:31:34 +0000

Hi,

Thanks for your comment. I had to modify it slightly, substituting “effin” for the original form, because many elementary schools send students to this site. Silly, yes, but there it is.

I had forgotten that Bob Hope appeared in those commercials. I can hear his voice saying that line again.

I don’t doubt that you guys used that phrase, but you may not have been the only ones, since they were so impossible to ignore.