Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 10:11:40 -0800

From: Allen Maberry maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]U.WASHINGTON.EDU

Subject: Re: -mondo



I believe Mondo Cane was an Italian film, and that the Fonz's full name

was Fonzerelli. Perhaps we're dealing with a faux-Italian suffix, -mundo,

-amundo (with emphasis on the "faux-"). The closest truly Italian suffix

would probably be -mento.



Allen

maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]u.washington.edu



On Wed, 12 Mar 1997, Donald M. Lance wrote:



2) on mock- or faux-Spanish (no problemo, etc.): another formation I've

come across recently is the superlative-forming -mondo, e.g. the use of

both "correctamundo" and "perfectamundo" in a currently-airing radio

commercial for RCA.



Maybe just my overworked imagination, but I wonder whether there was some

connection between the Fonz's use of -mundo and the movie 'Mondo Cane' that

ame out somewhere back in that era.