Gabagool

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A cured Italian-American sausage made from seasoned pork shoulder, also known as capicola, often sliced thin for sandwiches
2. Dry-cured pork shoulder sausage of Italian-American tradition, typically seasoned with spices and served in thin slices
3. A salted and air-dried pork sausage made from the shoulder meat, commonly eaten cold on Italian deli platters and sandwiches

Etymology: "Gabagool" is a respelling of a Neapolitan dialect word, and the spelling itself is the joke. The Neapolitan original is "capocuollo," which names a cured Italian meat made from the neck, or "capo," of the pig. Italian speakers know the same cut as "capocollo," and English speakers know the cognate as "capicola," so the three forms are related versions of one word. In Neapolitan speech the final syllable is pronounced in a way that a spelling-minded English speaker could mistake for "gabagool," and the word was spelled to match that sound. The respelling is a hypercorrection: the sound "gabagool" tries to reproduce is the Neapolitan pronunciation, but the spelling was built by reversing the usual rules, so the letters drift far from the original. The "g" replaces the "c" of "capocuollo," and the "-ool" ending stands in for "-cuollo," with the "c" softened to a "g" sound. The result looks wrong to anyone who knows Italian, which is part of its appeal to the people who use it.