padrone
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: padrones
form: padroni
Etymology: From Italian padrone, from Latin patronus. Doublet of patron, Patronus, patroon, and pattern.
Senses: examples: text: She had not the slightest intention of keeping the promises she had made to the padrone; she had resolved to lie stoutly as far as was necessary to make good her own and Beppo's escape.
ref: 1878, Aadel Barnes Gustafson, “Beppo”, in Sunday Afternoon, volume 2, page 174:
text: Whenever the padrone felt suspicious of any of the boys, he usually sent them out in company with Pietro, who acted as a spy, faithfully reporting all that happened to his principal.
ref: 1902, Horatio Alger (Jr.) ·, Phil, the Fiddler, Or, The Story of a Young Street Musician, page 62:
text: Sometimes the son of the padrone walked among the vines, and we listened as to Christ.
ref: 1913 June 28, Adriana Spadoni, “The Lesson”, in Outlook, volume 104, page 444:
glosses: A patron; a protector.
examples: text: Dominedio! O Riverenza! how sadly must Ser Giovanni, my poor padrone, have lost his memory in this cruel long illness!
ref: 1889, Walter Savage Landor, Havelock Ellis, The Pentameron: And Other Imaginary Conversations, page 89:
text: The padrone, in imitation of a celebrated historian, sighed as a man, but obeyed as a landlord.
ref: 1897, Morley Roberts, “A Travel-Picture”, in Lady's Realm, volume 2, page 412:
text: To-day Lucrezia was in the service of distinguished forestieri, and she was gazing now across the ravine, straining her eyes to see a procession winding up from the sea—donkeys laden with luggage, and her new padrone and padrona, pioneered by the radiant Gaspare towards their mountain home.
ref: 1906 March, Robert Hichens, “The Call of the Blood”, in Harper's Bazaar, volume 40, number 3, page 229:
glosses: A landlord; the master of a large estate.
examples: text: The poor padrone or captain, in his red-tasselled cap, dingy-velvet jacket, and open-kneed breeches, had no sooner contrived to scramble up the side and reach teh quarter-deck, followed by a grinning midshipman, than he gave vent to all sorts of gesticulations and protestations explanatory of his having unfortunately mistaken the British ship for a French one.
ref: 1850, “The Sunken Rock-A Tale of the Mediterranean”, in Chambers's Papers for the People, page 15:
text: Whereupon Messrs. Gascoigne and Easy paid their bill and rose to depart, but the padrone informed them that he should like to see the colour of their money before they went on board.
ref: 1906, Captain Marryat, Mr. Midshipman Easy, page 152:
text: It may have been an accident that the padrone of the Saint Nicholas of Messina had exactly twice as many shirts and pairs of breeches as the other members of the ship's company, yet it is to be observed that the proportion of two to one, or thereabouts, obtained in every respect between him and the mariners.
ref: 1912, David Hannay, The Sea Trader: His Friends and Enemies, page 30:
glosses: The master of a small coaster in the Mediterranean.
examples: text: But the padrone does not employ the men alone and upon his own responsibility . He works together with the Italian banker, who is a somewhat more responsible party than the padrone; at least the men have more faith in him, because it is through him that they send money back to Italy, and with whom they keep their small savings.
ref: 1901, Reports of the Industrial Commission on Immigration- Volume 15, page 433:
text: As a natural consequence of what might be called this friendship the laborer turns to the banker or padrone for advice as to work, and he will go where the padrone sends him .
ref: 1904, Frances Kellor, Out of Work, page 205:
text: The United States Bureau of Immigration has been conducting for some time an investigation aimed at the suppression of the "padrone" system in so far as it violates United States statutes.
ref: 1911, “The Greek Padrone System in the United States”, in Abstracts of reports of the Immigration commission, page 391:
text: The handing over of this power to these "bosses" has meant the perpetuation of the padrone system in Massachusetts.
ref: 1914, Massachusetts. Commission on Immigration, Report of the Commission on Immigration on the Problem of Immigration in Massachusetts, page 70:
text: With Italians and some other foreign labor, the entire management and care of laborers, except during the eight or ten hours they are actually at work, is turned over to the padrone. The man thus becomes the padrone's and not the contractor's . Again the padrone makes his living off of the men .
ref: 1914 June 1, “Some Serious Abuses in the Employment and Handling of Men”, in Contractor, volume 19, number 11, page 35:
glosses: A man who imports, and controls the earnings of, Greek or Italian labourers, street musicians, child beggars, etc.
examples: text: For along the dark drive leading up to the main house was a bizarre collection of statuary: likenesses of the entire Boiardo family, their busts and nameplates array on pilasters surreounding the padrone of the dynasty, a youthful Richie the Boot, outfitted in formal riding wear, sitting astride a prancing white stallion.
ref: 1993, Robert Rudolf, Robert Rudolph, Mafia Wiseguys: The Mob That Took on the Feds, page 46:
text: The protection which the mafioso provides for the property of his padrone is principally directed against ladri and banditi; that is, against elements wishing, within the existing system, to improve their personal prospects.
ref: 1998, Henner Hess, Mafia & Mafiosi: Origin, Power and Myth, page 147:
text: Salemi, a high-ranking member of the Agrigento Mafia, insisted that Violi recognize Cuffaro, but the self - styled padrone of Saint- Léonard would not capitulate.
ref: 2011, Andre Cedilot, Andre Noel, Mafia Inc.: The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan, page 97:
text: As the senior mafia padrone, Luigi Sansone used his four-man mafia team to start collections from Sicilian businesses on the Hill.
ref: 2011, J.C.R., Sally A. Forehand, J C R Forehand, Murder at the St. Louis Worlds Fair, page 75:
glosses: A mafia boss.