lazzarone

plural lazzarones · plural lazzaroni

1. historicalin pluralOne of the poorer classes of Neapolitans; a chance-worker or beggar.First known use 18th c.

   […] Brighton, a clean Naples with genteel lazzaroni—[…]

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “A Marriage and Part of a Honeymoon”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 189

   3 more examples

   What does he mean by his Rights of Man, and his equality?—What wretched and dangerous doctrine to diſſeminate among the lazzaroni* of England, where they are always ready enough to murmur againſt their betters?

   1792, Charlotte Smith, “Letter X. To Mr. Bethel.”, in Desmond. […], volume II, London: […] G[eorge,] G[eorge,] J[ohn] and J[ames] Robinson, […], →OCLC, page 121

   […] attended by one or two of his band, who intended leaving off business and turning lazzaroni, they all set off for Naples, which they found in an uproar.

   1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 255

   Marcher said to himself that he ought to have rendered her some service - saved her from a capsized boat in the bay, or at least recovered her dressing bag, filched from her cab, in the streets of Naples, by a lazzarone with a stiletto.

   1903, Henry James, The Beast in the Jungle