Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One of those members of the poorer classes in Naples who earn a scanty subsistence as messengers, porters, and occasional laborers, or by fishing, but have no fixed habitation, and spend the most of their time in idling and begging.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One of the
poorer classes ofNeapolitans ;beggars . - noun
Playboy , someone who does not work and devotes himself to a life without commitments or responsibilities.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The lazzarone is a godsend for M. Dumas, an admirable peg upon which to hang his quaint conceit and sly satire; and he is accordingly frequently introduced in the course of the three volumes.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 341, March, 1844 Various
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Transteverin is the man of the faubourgs, its hammal is the market-porter, its lazzarone is the pegre, its cockney is the native of Ghent.
Les Miserables 2008
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As one French observer noted, “When a lazzarone has earned four or five coins to have some macaroni for the day, he no longer worries about tomorrow and stops working.”
Delizia! John Dickie 2008
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Carlos and his lazzarone son, Ferdinand, gently sponsored a new Neapolitan patriotism, and an ethos of public service.
Delizia! John Dickie 2008
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Indeed, a meal of maccheroni seemed to be the central goal of their existence, the very definition of lazzarone bliss.
Delizia! John Dickie 2008
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You have a barbarian, the monk, and a savage, the lazzarone.
Les Miserables 2008
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When he got a bit of sunshine, the old lazzarone basked in it; he prated about his own affairs and past splendour, and all the lords, generals, and Lord – Lieutenants he had ever known.
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Englishman, who seized the little statue that he coveted from under the very nose of the astounded invalid, put it into his pocket, and, jumping over the string, ran off as hard as he could, accompanied by the lazzarone.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 341, March, 1844 Various
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He had scarcely made a stroke, however, when the soldier and the lazzarone approached him.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 341, March, 1844 Various
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We must make room for one more extract, in which he figures in conjunction with his friend the sbirro or gendarme, who before being invested with a uniform, and armed with carbine, pistols, and sabre, has frequently been a lazzarone himself, and usually preserves the instincts and tastes of his former station.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 341, March, 1844 Various
knitandpurl commented on the word lazzarone
"In the Neapolitan country, where everybody was a spy, a soldier, a priest, or a lazzarone, the shameless beggars of all four denominations incessantly pounced on the Bottle and made it a pretext for extorting money from me."
- "The Italian Prisoner" by Charles Dickens, in The Uncommercial Traveller
July 24, 2016
pantlmn commented on the word lazzarone
Probably this word is related to the parable from Gospel of Luke about the rich man and poor beggar named Lazarus.
May 8, 2020