SLPAD - 88 - “Low-Lands” - 2

[Michael Bailey]

“…[Rocco] had arrived at the Flange residence with an orange peel still
clinging to his dungaree shirt and a gallon of homemade muscatel dangling
from a large fist speckled with coffee grounds. “Hey sfacim’,” he bellowed
from the living room. “I got wine. Come on down.”

Rocco is kind of a primal-sounding name, isn’t it?

https://www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2018/08/name-of-the-week-rocco.html

Sez there are several theories of its origin,

“1) It could derive from the Germanic element *hrok* meaning "rest, repose."

2) The element might be the Old High German *rohōn* meaning "to roar"
especially referring to a battle cry.

3) Most convincingly, Rocco may derive from the Old High German *hruoh *
"crow, rook" which is also found as *hroc* in Old English and Old Norse
* hrokr*. “

In America, Rocco was more established thanks to high Italian migration.

>From ranking #*777* in 1900 it gradually rose to a peak of #*283* in
1922. After
that, it declined to a plateau of between #400-#600 through the 1930s, 40s
and 50s. By the 1970s, it began to decline, finally leaving the top 1000 in
1995.

Rocco returned to the top 1000 again in 2001, (perhaps thanks to Rocco
Ritchie's birth) and rose to a peak of #*385* in 2009. It has since
plateaued at #*457* in 2017.

Whoever Rocco Ritchie is (ok, ok: spawn of influencers Madonna & Guy
Ritchie)



Still, the name “Rocco” sounds tough.

He’s wearing a dungaree (denim) shirt, & bedecked with some of the
less-offensive materials of his trade: orange peel & coffee grounds; and a
gallon of (homemade - so primal!) Muscatel dangles from his “large fist.”

“Hey, sfacim,” he bellowed from the living room. I got wine. Come on down.”


He’s already in the living room? Lotta nerve, this Rocco.


Sfacim
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sfacim

“Also spelled "sfaccim", it literally means "semen" … (Southern Italian
dialectal word) but is also used as an insult … equivalent to "bastard", or
"son-of-a bitch", or even “dickhead””


Quoting from (I think) Ken Kesey in an old “Whole Earth Catalog Supplement”
a phrase that wedged itself in long-term memory: “too mucho macho”,
n’est-ce pas?