April 4, 1997

goombah

What's the origin and mean of the word "gumba," which I've heard in old Godfather-type movies to refer to a leg-breaker or enforcer?

Goombah, to use its usual spelling, is an English rendering of a dialectal Italian pronunciation of compare, which can mean 'godfather', 'friend', or 'accomplice; crony'.

There are three main senses of goombah in English, two of which are translations of Italian uses and one an English innovation. The earliest sense found in English is 'a friend or associate'. This is first found in the mid 1950s, and seems to have been popularized by Rocky Graziano, the boxer and (later) actor, on NBC's The Martha Raye Show.

The second, and most familiar, sense is 'a mafia boss; a mafioso', or broadly 'any organized crime figure'. The first known use of this sense is in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather, the origin, of course, of the movie: "I don't care how many guinea Mafia goombahs come out of the woodwork."

Finally, the English-only sense is 'a stupid person', first found in the 1950s but not common until the 1980s. This is presumably based on stereotyped portrayals of low-level mafiosi as ignorant, loutish types.