Seventy-one is l'ommo 'e mmerda. The literal translation is unprintable in most contexts and the reference lists sidestep it by giving the sense: a wicked or contemptible person, someone beneath contempt.
It is one of the board's judgement squares rather than one of its objects, and it is the harshest of them.
- 71
- L'ommo 'e mmerda
- the worthless man
- Row 71–80 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
No recorded reason. The doubled mm is regular Neapolitan lengthening, the same mark as at 42 and 50.
Other things filed on 71
In Neapolitan life
Serao's 1884 reporting shows what these squares were for. Insults in Naples carried numbers, and a woman on trial for breaking another's face defended herself by saying «m'ha chiammata sittantotto» — she called me a seventy-eight. The judge, Serao notes, had to fetch a smorfia to find out what was so offensive about the number. Seventy-one worked the same way and needed no explaining to anybody.
71 in the smorfia — frequently asked
By its sense: a contemptible man. The literal Neapolitan is obscene, and the Italian reference lists gloss the meaning rather than the words.
Yes. Serao records a court case in 1884 in which the insult was the number itself and the judge had to look it up.