Eighty-seven is 'e perucchie, the lice. Italian reference tables give i pidocchi, and perucchie is the regular Neapolitan form of the same word.
English-language lists routinely print 'fleas' on this square. They are wrong, and the error is worth naming because it has been copied across most of the anglophone internet: a flea is a pulce, and nothing on any Italian list says pulce.
- 87
- 'E perucchie
- the lice
- Row 81–90 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
None recorded.
Other things filed on 87
In Neapolitan life
Piducchiuso, lousy, is standard Neapolitan abuse for a mean or grasping person, in the way English says lousy without thinking about where the word came from. The insult is likelier than the insect to be what a dreamer meant.
87 in the smorfia — frequently asked
Lice. Every Italian source gives pidocchi; the 'fleas' gloss appears only on English-language lists and is a mistranslation.
One English list glossed pidocchi as fleas and the rest copied it. It is a small illustration of how this material travels: repeated, not checked.