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Comment by simonebrunozzi | Hacker News Reader

Tangential, but I would be curious to know if "capiche" refers to the Italian "capisci?", which is Neapolitan dialect meaning "do you understand?".

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Yes. The last vowel is often dropped (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocope) esp by Italian Americans. This also makes it work for nearly every conjugation so it can be the question (do you understand) as well as the answer (I understand).

We're hip hop sharecroppers

Used to wear flip flops, now rare gear coppers

He's in it for the quiche

You might as well not ask him for no free s___, capiche?

Google tells me it’s “from Italian capisce third person singular present tense of capire ‘understand’”

The madvillainy is unnecessary, but appreciated.

Madvillainy is life tho.

My impression is that the word was popularized from mafia movies depicting Italian mafia guys saying it, and that it means like "understand?" or "get it?"

Author here—yup, it’s based on the Italian word.

Is that the standard way to write the word in english? It'd be pronounced "kapikay" (ch=k) rather than capisce (sce=shhe) if read in italian.

just like "Yo"

It's not really Neapolitan, it's Italian plain and simple.

Not really. The soft "sc" with a mute "e" at the end is typical of souther Italian dialects, including neapolitan and sicilian.

When you say "capisc?", instead of "capisce?" (written: capisci?), Italians mostly feel that the word is said following a southern Italian dialect.

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