I just finished the book "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb (great read) and one of the characters uses that word a lot. I wasn't really able to use the context to see what it meant. So, just curious!
2007-05-28 11:04:21 · 13 answers · asked by Corey F 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
"Paisano" is Spanish and means your compatriot, or just a friend in colloquial usage. "Paesano" is Italian and means a person from the village, a farmer.
"Paesani" are people from the same village, however as a broad term we (Specifically as Italian-Americans) say it to mean all Italian Americans. Kind of like how you identify with people from your same town in Italy, here we identify with people from the same nation.
2007-05-28 11:17:43 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 2⤋
Its really a person from the same town or region in Italy. However its true that its now morphed into anyone who is Italian American. One of the "best answers" said it also means peasant which is not accurate. A peasant is a contadino which is a word used for someone who works the land. Or as some really nasty northerners racist slang for southerns Terrone. Most Northerners in polite conversation would not use this just as you would not call a Irishman a mick but there are always the occasional cafone!
I am an Italian speaker who learned the language from my immigrants parents who spoke it at home
2016-09-07 05:28:26 · answer #2 · answered by Fred 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Paisano Meaning
2016-10-03 04:15:20 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Myself authentic 100% Italian-American
2014-01-21 22:42:51 · answer #4 · answered by Gabriel L 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
RE:
In Italian, what does "paisano" mean?
I just finished the book "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb (great read) and one of the characters uses that word a lot. I wasn't really able to use the context to see what it meant. So, just curious!
2015-07-31 00:54:58 · answer #5 · answered by Harvey 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means someone from your town, like in America in "the hood" they say "homeboy". In Italian/America one might would say, Enzo is my paisan, he from the neighborhood, he's OK. As someone who is neapolitan descent born in Brooklyn & family still in Naples, this is how it's used. The same goes for Spain which was a part of the Roman empire. The language is from Latin which was the spoken from the Romans, originally spoken by the Italic Latins in Latium & Ancient Rome.
2015-01-09 23:58:58 · answer #6 · answered by ? 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Paisano Definition
2016-12-12 08:33:46 · answer #7 · answered by cruickshank 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know what "paisano" means but "paesano" means country or fellow countryman/woman.
2007-05-28 11:09:20 · answer #8 · answered by cg17 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It means someone from the same village, buddy, pal, compatriot. The English word 'peasant' is from the same ultimate root.
It's funny, I would say that the closest word in English to 'paisano' in meaning is 'homeboy'.
2007-05-28 11:54:58 · answer #9 · answered by Doc Occam 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/axwyz
it means "the sweet life" To say "life is good" we say "la vita è bella" (life is beautiful).
2016-04-11 03:51:42 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋