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Italian place in South Africa, which means "counterfeit" in Italian English (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
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At Rosebank mall in Johannesburg

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[–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I thought the Z was just a fancy written one, not a double one. According to my search:

fugazi

adjective

  1. not genuine; bogus or false

Example: the stealing was first noticed when the fugazi bills began popping up in the bank deposits

noun

  1. a thing that is not genuine; a pretence or sham

Example: it's all a big fugazi. He's used it as a ruse to sell a lot of stock

My first search came with "counterfeit" as first translation.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    What I was trying to say is that that's not Italian. It's US English :)

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    Since you said it was possibly a surname, my guess is that someone named Fugazi was a well known counterfeiter for the mob, and the Italian Americans started using it as slang.

    https://lemmy.zip/comment/28532982

    According to this, I was almost right. He owned a limousine rental service with the ad tag line, "look like a rich guy." So he was creating "fake riches."

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