capisce

English

Alternative forms

• capiche, capeesh, capisch, capische, capishe, coppish, kabish

Etymology

Borrowed (with a change of spelling reflecting the cluster of dialectal pronunciations) from Italian, Neapolitan, and Sicilian capisci, the second-person singular present indicative form of capire (“to understand”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈpiːʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəˈpiʃ/
• Rhymes: -iːʃ

Interjection

capisce?

1. (slang) "Get it?"; "understood?".
   • 1995, “Marge Be Not Proud”, in The Simpsons, Bart Simpson (actor):

     Brodka: Hey, kid: one more thing. If you ever set foot in this store again, you'll be spending Christmas in juvenile hall. Capisce?
     Bart: [silence]
     Brodka: Well, do you understand?
     Bart: Everything except "capisce."

   • 1996, The Wachowskis, Bound, Dino de Laurentiis Productions and Spelling Films:

     Gino Marzzone: You gotta start respecting Johnny, the way you respect me. Capisce?

   • 1997, Eric Bogosian, Notes from Underground, page 138:

     It's very simple, George, you forget about this whole licensing lawsuit pipe dream of yours or you can forget about your buddy working in my factory for the next couple of years. I will be that angry. Capiche?

   • 2003, Richard Chiappone, Water of an Undetermined Depth:

     I mean, if you were coming into the plant for the long haul, God forbid, then you'd have to think seriously about the money. Capiche?

   • 2005, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), Number 459: All Cards On The Table Please:

     "That being said, if you hurt my boy I will introduce you to a whole new realm of pain and suffering. We're talking stuff that would make Heironymous^[sic] Bosch shit his britches, capisce?"

   • 2020 July 17, Intelligent Systems, Paper Mario: The Origami King, Nintendo, level/area: Sea Tower:

     Tape: And you, origami kid? Be a good goil and run back to Olly. It's past your beddy-bye time, capisce?

Usage notes

• (derogatory of southern Italians) Often used in a threatening manner, in imitation of the way the Italian Mafia is often portrayed in popular culture and entertainment media.
• Without a question mark at the end, it is sometimes used to mean, “I understand”, as an American colloquialism. In Italian, that would actually mean “he/she/it understands” or a formal “you understand”; so it sounds pretty much ungrammatical. To mean “I understand”, one would actually say [io] capisco.

Translations

“understood?”

• Armenian: հասկացա՞ր (haskacʻa^?r), հասկացա՞ք (haskacʻa^?kʻ)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 明白吗？

• Dutch: begrepen? (nl), gesnopen? (nl), snappie?
• French: pigé? (fr), compris? (fr)
• German: verstanden? (de), kapiert? (de)
• Hungarian: érted?, világos? (hu), értetek?, világosak?
• Italian: capito? (it), intesi? (it), (to one person, informal) capisci?, (to one person, formal) capisce? (it), (to many people) capite? (it)
• Japanese: 分かるか？ (わかるか？, wakaru ka?), 分かったか？ (わかったか？, wakatta ka?)
• Polish: kapisz? (slang), rozumiesz?, kapujesz? impf
• Portuguese: (to one person) entende? (pt), entendes? (pt), (to many people) entendem? (pt), entendeis? (pt)
• Russian: понял? (ru) m (ponjal?), ферштейн? (ferštejn?), андерстенд? (anderstend?)
• Sicilian: capisti?, à' caputu?
• Spanish: (to one person, formal) ¿entiende? (es), (to one person, informal) ¿entiendes? (es), (to many people, formal) ¿entienden? (es), (to many people, informal, chiefly Spain) ¿entendéis? (es)
• Swedish: begrips? (sv), förstått? (sv), (spoken language, informal, dialectal) fattaru (sv)?
• Turkish: kapiş? (tr)

Anagrams

• ice caps, ice-caps, icecaps, ipecacs

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈpiʃ.ʃe/
• Rhymes: -iʃʃe
• Hyphenation: ca‧pì‧sce

Verb

capisce

1. third-person singular present indicative of capire

Anagrams

• scapeci