Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, a Latin, e.g. an Italian, a Spaniard, a South American, etc.; Aus.) a Greek.

[1599		Nashe Praise of the Red Herring 14: They haue towres vpon them sixteene [...] which haue their thundring tooles to compell Deigo Spanyard to ducke].
1734		W. Dunkin ‘The Parson’s Revels’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 210: Et probabo te / Shin — cate — gore — mati — she / A Dagon.
1832		E.C. Wines Two Years and a Half in Navy I 101: These Degos [sic], as they are pleasantly called by our people, were a great pest.
1858		Knickerbocker (N.Y.) Jan. 7: And so, Bill, you served as a ingineer with these ere blamed dagos, you say .
1861		letter q. in Wiley Life of Johnny Reb (1943) 323: Thum-thur Dagoes jes maneuvers-up like Hell-beatin’-tan-bark!
1874		Nat. Republican (Wash., DC) 10 Dec. 4/7: It was the knives of the Dagoes [...] that made the streets of New Orleans literally run with Irish blood.
1882		Cheyenne Transporter (Darlington, Indian Territory) 13 Oct. 8/1: Italian immigrants are flocking to San Francisco. It may not be a great while ere the sand-lot slogan will be [...] ‘The Dagoes must go’.
1885		Forth Worth Dly Gaz. 12 Oct. 7/2: It would take a fine-tooth comb to find a true Democrat among the dagoes of that poverty-stricken city.
1886		Dly Morn. Astorian (OR) 31 Mar. 3/5: Jimmy approached [...] and yelled, ‘Rats, yer dago’.
1896		‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 351: [of a Maltese] One of our men ran away here, and the old man shipped a Maltese named Charley in his place. [...] He had that treacherous snaky look, characteristic of all these Mediterranean nations, known to Yankee sailors by the generic name of Dago.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 254: The very lowest characters of both sexes — bunco-steerers, gold-brick fabricators, sandbaggers, and, worse than all, if that be possible, the alien dagos from Italy and Spain.
1898		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Jan. 3/2: The old Flag must be worth something yet, or there wouldn’t be so many dagoes sailing under it.
1899		C.J.C. Hyne Adventures of Captain Kettle 284: ‘Now, you two Dagos,’ he said to the Portuguese.
1901		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 2 June 1/1: The agitation for the exclusion of the cheap-and-nasty alien is worthy of Parliament’s best attention [...] the insidious Dago is even a greater danger than the unspeakable Afghan.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 59: I was just takin’ a punch at a Dago, who’d been slangin’ me, when along comes them Central Office bulls, an’ collars me.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 21: We’re Saxons, you an’ me, an’ Mary, an’ Bert, and all the Americans that are real Americans, you know, and not Dagoes and Japs and such.
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 141: A Dago. A dirty Dago!
1915		J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 39: (of a Greek) The 15th of June was going to be a day of destiny, bigger destiny than the killing of a Dago.
1922		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 Dec. 18/2: As a matter of fact; I had to punch a Dago on the nose.
1925		M. Arlen May Fair (1947) 25: No one will deny that all dogs [...] are more acceptable to the Lord than foxes, rats, or Dagoes.
1926		L. Esson Bride of Gospel Place 76: Milky: (rising) Hear the dago talking to me Spiro: (excitedly) I ain’t no Dago. I’m Greek.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 132: I’ll get that swell-headed Dago if it’s the last thing I ever do.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 24: He demanded of the fat Italian, ‘Coffee and cakes for two, how much is it?’ [...] He could not wait for explanations with any Dago.
1937		A. Christie Murder in the Mews (1954) 44: ‘Who are you, I’d like to know’ [...] ‘Some kind of damned dago!’.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 46: He had taken Captain Emilio Gomez into his house as a Spanish gentleman. The fellow had turned out to be nothing but a Dirty Dago.
1946		D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 117: Nicholas Mykos owned one of the fruit shops in the town. He was a Greek and the shop was called Nicko’s. Sometimes people said, ‘We’ll meet you at the Dago’s’.
1954		R. Service ‘The Macaronis’ in Carols of an Old Codger 42: I know beyond a doubt, / A hundred times I’d rather be / A Dago than a Kraut.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 109: Two to one. You’re both bloody dagoes.
1973		(con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 29: If it wasn’t f’r th’ poms and dagoes there’d be more f’r us.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘To Hull and Back’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Stitch the dagos up.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 10: Auguste Beaurain [...] had run the upriver dagos, the downriver riffraff [...] and the out-of-state Dixie Mafia from town.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 196: Dropped a hammer on one of those dagos in Boston [...] He hit a made guy.
2006		C. Carr Our Town 63: The ‘mackeral snappers’ owed their loyalty to ‘the dago on the Tiber’.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 302: Yids and dagos [...] Going back to forever they had that turf, Canarsie.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] A few dagoes having a bit of a singsong.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 43: [of an Italian] He liked Joe because he looked like a TV dago.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 143: ‘Come on, before that old dago finds his balls’.

2. the Spanish or Italian (occas. French) language.

1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 8: She says ‘ze’ and ‘zink,’ and gets near crazy cause I tell her dat’s dago and worse dan me. [Ibid.] 23: De kind er dago dat French folks talk.
1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ John Henry 14: The track-walkers on the stage were talking Dago!
1903		E.W. Townsend ‘Chimmie Fadden Stories’ 8 Nov. [synd. col.] [of French] She rattles at him so fast in Dago, he couldn’t understand.
1905		Minneapolis Jrnl (MN) 29 Mar. 11/4: It ain’t me strong for the guinny game, but we had to have Dominick. He was the only one of us who could parley-voo the Eyetaliano. That’s why they sing it in the dago.
1923		M. Watts Luther Nichols 290: He don’t talk so dago now [DA].

3. a South American or Spanish ship.

1900

T.J. Hains Mr Trunnell Mate of the Ship ‘Pirate’ Ch. ix: He was glad enough to ship on a Chilean liner [...] He ware aboard this Dago, puttin’ in, whin he saw th’ Starbuck.

4. (N.Z.) a Maori.

1905		Truth (Wellington) 24 June 3: At a recent Otaki meeting an intoxicated Dago assured me that [...] he was the ‘pest plurry chockey in New Zealand’ [DNZE].
1912		Truth (Wellington) 20 Jan. 7: Among the many things for which New Zealand is noted is the manner in which the native population, i.e. the Maoris, commonly and contemptuously called by the pakeha, ‘the dago’, has been cared for by a paternal-like Government [DNZE].
1946		F. Sargeson That Summer 34: Oh boy, but it’s a quiet dump he [i.e. the barman] says. All Dagoes. Do I have some long serves.
1951		R. Park Witch’s Thorn 83: So, you’re mucking around with dagoes now. Mum’s going to be interested.

5. (orig. US) a Mexican or Puerto Rican.

1902		J. Masefield ‘A Night at Dago Tom’s’ in Salt-Water Ballads 38: We scooted south with a press of sail till we fetched to a caboose, / The ‘Sailor’s Rest,’ by Dago Tom, alongside ‘Paddy’s Goose.’.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 209: The damn dagoes they put up a notice of volunteers good clean young.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 33: Dagos, eh, drivin’ a big Cadillac.

6. any form of foreigner.

1903		E.W. Townsend Sure 65: ‘If I'd remembered dat your wife was a dago, and not onto our ways, I'd not been insulted’.
1909		N.Z. Truth 29 May 4/8: One Alfred Antonovitch, of Auckland. This despicable Dago dodger and diddler is not a full-fleuged bookie, by any means.
1911		E. Dyson ‘At the Opera’ in Benno and Some of the Push 94: [of a German] His dealings with the bladder-headed Dago would startle the town. Little did the devoted Dutchman know what horrors of retribution were saving up for him.
1919		‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 54: A kind of half-baked Dago, named Juan Mareno. A citizen of the United States according to his own account.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 89: [used to a German] Talk to your own Dagoes like that, not to me, you damned —— !
1933		‘George Orwell’ Down and Out in Complete Works I (1986) 154: All foreigners to him were ‘dem bloody dagoes’ [...] responsible for unemployment.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 4: United Nations it were round the Southern Neighbourhoods [...] Sometimes they’d get called Dagos and that. Nothing was meant by it.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [of a Lithuanian/Jewish immigrant] [B]ecause he could not speak English, [he] was considered stupid [...] and tormented by the other kids who called him ‘a dumb wog’ or a ‘greasy dago’.

7. any man, esp. a sexually attractive man.

1929

‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 264: An’ talkin’ about women, the times I ’ad with ’er mother before we was married. Why if any dago stopped in the street her was after ‘im.