fugazi

What does fugazi mean?

Fugazi (also spelled fugazy) is a slang term meaning “false, bogus, inauthentic.” It can also mean “a counterfeit, sham; nonsense; an impostor.” The word is pronounced with an open ä or long ā vowel sound.

Examples of fugazi

They'd rather tell themselves feel good fugazy than take accountability
—@meghmitra, Threads, 3 Sep. 2024

Five Morris County mayors who say their towns are being overwhelmed by state affordable housing quotas vowed Monday to fight what one of them dismissed as New Jersey's "fugazi" regulations.
—William Westhoven, Daily Record (New Jersey), 11 Jun. 2024

Jalen Hurts’ fugazi QB record is evidence that sometimes numbers do lie
—DJ Dunson, Deadspin (headline), 29 Dec. 2023

Seems like the whole country is moving here and the housing market is absolutely fugazi.
—RiverDog (user), Telecaster Discussion Page Reissue (Internet forum), 23 Jun. 2023

[Chris] Hipkins change in direction is in our view a con, he is a fugazi.
—Marc Spring, Marc Spring (blog), 14 Mar. 2023

Where does fugazi come from?

Fugazi was first recorded in the 1970s, typically written as fugazy. One popular explanation for the word’s origin connects it to Fugazy Continental, a limousine and luxury car service in New York City in the 1970s–80s that was accused of fraud. Fugazi was popularized by its use (referring to a fake diamond) in the 1997 mobster film Donnie Brasco and the 1988 book it was based on, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia. Although the origins of the word are uncertain, fugazi is commonly associated with (or stereotyped as) English spoken by Italian Americans in the greater New York City area. It’s also closely associated with a 1980–90s punk band that used the word as its name.

Fugazi is also occasionally used to mean “completely screwed up.” This sense is said to come from military slang during the Vietnam War, standing for the initial letters of “fucked up, got ambushed, zipped in (a body bag).” Evidence for this origin, and historical usage, is scant. This sense—and origin story—resembles the military slang fubar (fucked up beyond all recognition), characterizing something as thoroughly, irreparably damaged.

How is fugazi used?

Fugazi is mainly used as an informal pejorative to denigrate someone or something a person perceives to be phony, fake, or bogus. It is used with the dismissive force of nonsense—or coarser synonyms for it, like bullshit. In this way, it can be used as an adjective (“He misled me with fugazi promises”) or a noun (“The politician was a complete fugazi”). It is also used to call something an actual counterfeit (a “fugazi designer bag”) or sham (“The email saying I won a bunch of money was a total fugazi”). Occasionally, it is used in the construction no fugazi, similar to no joke or no lie, emphasizing the genuineness of someone or something.

Far less commonly, fugazi is used to describe something as—and with the force of—effed up.