Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
honorary paisan
English answer:
honorary italian, affectionate way of saying he's very close
Added to glossary by
David Russi
Dec 3, 2008 09:26
15 yrs ago
English term
Devoting myself to translation
Native in: Chinese 
Works in: Chinese to English, English to Chinese, Japanese to Chinese, and 2 more.
honorary paisan
English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
He charged into the office of a diminutive but spirited friend named James J.Fagan, who served as vice president of the American National Bank.He made Fagan,obviously an Irishman, into an honorary paisan and said,” Giacomo, I’m going to start a bank. Tell me how to do it!”
I can't find the translation of paisan
I can't find the translation of paisan
Change log
Dec 3, 2008 09:33: Nesrin changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"
Dec 17, 2008 07:08: David Russi Created KOG entry
Responses
+5
4 mins
David Russi
United States
United States
Native in English
&
English
United States
30+ years, stopped counting...
Native in: English , Spanish
Works in: English to Spanish, Spanish to English
Related KudoZ points
:
44
Selected
affectionate way of saying he's very close
close enough to say he's a compatriot, a fellow Italian, even is just in an honorary way
Peer comment(s):
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kmtext
: An honorary countryman - hence the Giacomo
51 mins
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Jonathan MacKerron
: an honorary Italian
1 hr
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Gary D
2 hrs
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Tina Vonhof (X)
: with Jonathan.
5 hrs
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Patricia Rosas
: yep. From paisano, no?
8 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
9 days
shirin ghorab
Works in field
seven years experience +
Native in: Arabic 
Works in: English, English to Arabic, Arabic to English
fellow countryman/brother
It's a word that's used with Italians or Italian Americans when informally, but friendly, adressing one another. It means "brother" or "fellow countryman". Shortened from paisano, and is sometimes spelled paesan.
Example sentence:
A term used by wops to address each other, orignially meaning 'friend'. This is analagous to the mexican use of 'Amigo' or the African American use of 'homie'.
Reference:
Discussion
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ube8O40i07wC&pg=PA36&lpg...
(and my paisan - Frank Sinatra (performer, actor, and political activist).
Director Gillo Pontecorvo, himself a man of the left, was greatly influenced by his mentor Roberto Rossellini's Paisan(1946)