Posted 11 March 2006 by glennwahlert
G'day all. Somewhere on this site there's an old postcard showing British WWII ships making the number '90' with their wake while Italian aircraft attack. The caption states that '90' means fear. Can anyone confirm this?
I'm doing some research on the Australian part of Op COMPASS.
Thanx, Glenn
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Posted 11 March 2006 by Lupo Solitario
correct: "fear is 90" as an Italian old motto says (I don't know if you know what is lotto...)
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Posted 13 March 2006 by Joseph Salemi
In the game of lotto as played in Italy (similar to what we in America call "Bingo") all of the numbers from 1 to 99 have nicknames. When a number is picked out of the bag, the number is called and its nickname is also given. This makes the game of lotto more interesting, and it serves as a mnemonic device.
My grandfather knew all of the numbers' nicknames by heart, and when I was child I loved hearing him call them out when we played lotto at home. I remember a few, but the funniest was 88: L'ugghiuni di Papa ("The Pope's Balls").
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Posted 13 March 2006 by Tankredi
So 90 stands simply for fear (paura?).
Can anyone explain the coherence?
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Posted 13 March 2006 by Joseph Salemi
There is no coherence. The associations are purely arbitrary. Someone in the past decided that 90 represented "fear," and that's that.
Don't look for connections where there aren't any. That's the job of academic theorists.
In the past, the Italians published a series of "dream-books" which purported to give you the numbers associated with whatever persons or places or things you might have seen in a dream. You could then bet those numbers in the state lottery. The books were very popular, and I suppose that many people used them in placing their lottery bets. This also helps to explain why numbers are associated with things and ideas in Italy.
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Posted 13 March 2006 by Gian
There is no coherence. The associations are purely arbitrary. Someone in the past decided that 90 represented "fear," and that's that.
Don't look for connections where there aren't any. That's the job of academic theorists.
In the past, the Italians published a series of "dream-books" which purported to give you the numbers associated with whatever persons or places or things you might have seen in a dream. You could then bet those numbers in the state lottery. The books were very popular, and I suppose that many people used them in placing their lottery bets. This also helps to explain why numbers are associated with things and ideas in Italy.
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Posted 14 March 2006 by Joseph Salemi
I have seen two versions of this dream-book. One was an old edition from the 1920s, and another was a later paperback version from the early 1950s. They seem to have been popular in the Italian neighborhoods of American cities, where they were used to find out lucky numbers to bet on in the illegal "numbers racket," which was run by the Mafia. The "numbers racket" was a game wherein you would bet on the last three figures that were published concerning the total amount of money wagered at a particular racetrack on a certain day. It could be anything from 000 to 999, so the odds against winning were very great.
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Posted 14 March 2006 by FB
Yes and no.
In "la paura fa 90" (fear is 90, or sums up to 90) one could read, as someone told me years ago, that if 100 is the result you want to obtain from someone, his having fear takes you to level 90 thus leaving you with only 10 in order to accomplish your mission.
Other numbers in lotto that I remember are:
77 = Women's leg (this one is graphical)
33 = Christ's years (his age)
Best regards
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Posted 15 March 2006 by Joseph Salemi
That explanation of 90 as the number for fear is what in philology would be called an example of "folk etymology." It is something made up after the fact to give a plausible meaning to an established verbal practice. Another example would be to say that the word "divino" comes from the phrase "di vino," because when you drink wine you feel like a god. It is a completely bogus idea.
But it is true that some of the number nicknames do have an explanation (33 as "L'anni di Christo" being a good example, since according to tradition Chrsit lived only 33 years). Despite these few exceptions, the great bulk of the number nicknames are purely arbitrary.
G'day all. Somewhere on this site there's an old postcard showing British WWII ships making the number '90' with their wake while Italian aircraft attack. The caption states that '90' means fear. Can anyone confirm this?
I'm doing some research on the Australian part of Op COMPASS.
Thanx, Glenn
------------
Posted 11 March 2006 by Lupo Solitario
correct: "fear is 90" as an Italian old motto says (I don't know if you know what is lotto...)
-----------------
Posted 13 March 2006 by Joseph Salemi
In the game of lotto as played in Italy (similar to what we in America call "Bingo") all of the numbers from 1 to 99 have nicknames. When a number is picked out of the bag, the number is called and its nickname is also given. This makes the game of lotto more interesting, and it serves as a mnemonic device.
My grandfather knew all of the numbers' nicknames by heart, and when I was child I loved hearing him call them out when we played lotto at home. I remember a few, but the funniest was 88: L'ugghiuni di Papa ("The Pope's Balls").
----------------
Posted 13 March 2006 by Tankredi
So 90 stands simply for fear (paura?).
Can anyone explain the coherence?
-----------------
Posted 13 March 2006 by Joseph Salemi
There is no coherence. The associations are purely arbitrary. Someone in the past decided that 90 represented "fear," and that's that.
Don't look for connections where there aren't any. That's the job of academic theorists.
In the past, the Italians published a series of "dream-books" which purported to give you the numbers associated with whatever persons or places or things you might have seen in a dream. You could then bet those numbers in the state lottery. The books were very popular, and I suppose that many people used them in placing their lottery bets. This also helps to explain why numbers are associated with things and ideas in Italy.
---------------
Posted 13 March 2006 by Gian
There is no coherence. The associations are purely arbitrary. Someone in the past decided that 90 represented "fear," and that's that.
Don't look for connections where there aren't any. That's the job of academic theorists.
In the past, the Italians published a series of "dream-books" which purported to give you the numbers associated with whatever persons or places or things you might have seen in a dream. You could then bet those numbers in the state lottery. The books were very popular, and I suppose that many people used them in placing their lottery bets. This also helps to explain why numbers are associated with things and ideas in Italy.
-------------------
Posted 14 March 2006 by Joseph Salemi
I have seen two versions of this dream-book. One was an old edition from the 1920s, and another was a later paperback version from the early 1950s. They seem to have been popular in the Italian neighborhoods of American cities, where they were used to find out lucky numbers to bet on in the illegal "numbers racket," which was run by the Mafia. The "numbers racket" was a game wherein you would bet on the last three figures that were published concerning the total amount of money wagered at a particular racetrack on a certain day. It could be anything from 000 to 999, so the odds against winning were very great.
-------------------
Posted 14 March 2006 by FB
Yes and no.
In "la paura fa 90" (fear is 90, or sums up to 90) one could read, as someone told me years ago, that if 100 is the result you want to obtain from someone, his having fear takes you to level 90 thus leaving you with only 10 in order to accomplish your mission.
Other numbers in lotto that I remember are:
77 = Women's leg (this one is graphical)
33 = Christ's years (his age)
Best regards
------------------
Posted 15 March 2006 by Joseph Salemi
That explanation of 90 as the number for fear is what in philology would be called an example of "folk etymology." It is something made up after the fact to give a plausible meaning to an established verbal practice. Another example would be to say that the word "divino" comes from the phrase "di vino," because when you drink wine you feel like a god. It is a completely bogus idea.
But it is true that some of the number nicknames do have an explanation (33 as "L'anni di Christo" being a good example, since according to tradition Chrsit lived only 33 years). Despite these few exceptions, the great bulk of the number nicknames are purely arbitrary.