stunod

English

Etymology

Italian-American immigrant slang; dialectal and derived from Southern Italian languages. In standard Italian it would be Italian stonato (“out of tune”). However, in the first half of the 20th century, the largely Southern Italian emigrants to America did not speak the Florentine dialect that modern Standard Italian is based upon and instead used the Sicilian stunatu or the Neapolitan stunato. The Italian-American meaning is nearly identical to the meaning in Sicilian and Neapolitan, though in Sicilian and Neapolitan stunatu and stuntato can also simply mean “out of tune” as well.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈstunɑd/

Adjective

stunod (not comparable)

1. (slang) Stupid or crazy; out of touch with reality.
   • 2000 Christmas, “Are you stunod?”, in Primo‎^[1], volume 1, number 2, page 27:

     If I was acting particularly spacey, my mother would ask, “Are you stunod?”

   • 2000, Maria Laurino, Were You Always an Italian?: Ancestors and Other Icons of Italian America‎^[2], W.W. Norton:

     “Do you understand me? Are you stunod?” my mother would say. Stunod. Someone who is out-of-it, spacey, not a practical person who knows that life is labor and that only the sturdy can get the job done.

   • 2010 August 3, Bob Fingerman, Pariah, Tor, →ISBN, →OL:

     “The stunod commander, a German Commodore no less, decides that there's just too many ships in the Gulf, and he doesn't have the manpower to search everyone of them.”

Translations

stupid

• Finnish: tärähtänyt (fi)

Noun

stunod (plural stunods)

1. (slang, derogatory) A stupid or crazy person.
   • 2002, Patricia MacDonald, Not Guilty‎^[3], Pocket Books, →OL:

     “Hey, stunod,” Gina interjected angrily. “Help the lady.”

   • 2010, Bob Fingerman, Pariah, Tor, →ISBN, page 205:

     “Fuck me,” Eddie growled, cursing himself for the stunod that he was.

   • 2011 February 15, Lou Scorziello, My Brother's Keeper‎^[4], Xlibris, →ISBN, →LCCN:

     That stunod never calls me unless I'm late with his tuition.

   • 2022 June 23, Christopher Storer, “Hands”, in Christopher Storer, director, The Bear, season 1, episode 2, spoken by Richie Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), via FX on Hulu:

     I don’t even know why you wanna work for that little stunad.

Translations

stupid person

• Finnish: tolvana (fi)

Anagrams

• Dutson, donuts, stound