medigan

Noun capitalized: Medigan

Medigan (plural Medigans)

1. (slang, Italian American) An Italian who has lost touch with their cultural heritage.
   • I don't mean white like Caucasian. I mean a white man like our friend Cusamano. Now he's Italian, but he's a Medigan. It's what my old man would have called a Wonder Bread wop. He eats his Sunday gravy out of a jar.1999 March 14, Joe Bosso, Frank Renzulli, “A Hit Is a Hit”, in The Sopranos, season 1, episode 10 (television production), spoken by Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini)
   • In any case, the pretentious LaPenna is representative of precisely the Medigan types whom Tony sees as having abandoned their ethnic heritage in order to pursue mainstream respect and success in America – except that LaPenna wants to have it both ways and continue to claim Italian ethnicity as...2017 March 1, M. Keith Booker, Isra Daraiseh, Tony Soprano's America: Gangsters, Guns, and Money, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, →ISBN, page 193
2. (slang, Italian American) A non-Italian person, particularly a white American.
   • C'mon, you're Italian, you understand. Guys like me we're brought up to think that Medigans are fuckin' bores. The truth is the average white man is no more boring than the millionth conversation over who should have won, Marciano or Ali.1999 March 14, Joe Bosso, Frank Renzulli, “A Hit Is a Hit”, in The Sopranos, season 1, episode 10 (television production), spoken by Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini)
   • Marilyn does not overtly use the term medigan when discussing her husband, but she does specifically name those "whiter" ethnic groups that are typically associated with this notion.2018 March 2, Andrea L. Dottolo, Carol Dottolo, Italian American Women, Food, and Identity: Stories at the Table, Springer, →ISBN, page 32