What does fico mean?
Fico is the Italian and Portuguese word for a fig, borrowed into English during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when it functioned less as a name for the fruit than as a figure of contemptuous worthlessness. To say you did not 'care a fico' for someone — or, more colorfully, to offer them 'a fico' — was to declare them beneath consideration, much as one might say 'I don't give a fig' today. The expression flourished on the Elizabethan stage, where characters punctuated their defiance with the phrase, sometimes accompanied by a crude hand gesture known as 'giving the fig.' Though now archaic, fico remains a fascinating relic of how everyday objects become symbols of scorn. Its deeper story links English to Mediterranean languages through Latin, and even connects it, via ancient Greek, to the modern term 'sycophant.' Readers today meet it mainly in Shakespeare and his contemporaries, where its sharp, dismissive bite still comes through clearly.
nounA fig, especially as the type of a thing of trivial value; historically used in expressions of contempt, as in 'a fico for you,' meaning roughly 'you're not worth a fig.'
- A fig, or something of negligible value, used figuratively to express contempt or disdain ('I care not a fico for it').
- The literal fruit of the fig tree (borrowed from Italian/Portuguese).
"He snapped his fingers and declared he cared not a fico for their threats."
"When they demanded his surrender, he answered that he would not give a fico for all their armies."
"She dismissed the gossip as a mere fico, not worth a moment's thought."
Historical English texts typically pluralize as 'ficoes,' following the standard English -es pattern; the Italian plural 'fichi' applies only to the foreign word itself.
"He valued their promises at no more than two ficoes."
In Shakespeare's day, to give someone 'the fico' was literally to make a rude gesture with your thumb between your fingers — an ancient insult that survives in the very word 'sycophant,' Greek for 'fig-shower.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fico
The word derives ultimately from Latin 'ficus,' meaning fig tree or fig, passing through Italian and Portuguese 'fico' before entering English in the late sixteenth century. The same Latin root underlies the genus name Ficus and, by way of Greek 'sykon' (fig), the English word 'sycophant' — originally an informer, literally a 'fig-shower.' In English, fico quickly took on a figurative sense of something worthless, used in expressions of contempt such as 'a fico for thee,' familiar from Elizabethan drama.
How fico is actually used
'Fico' is now almost exclusively encountered in historical literature, especially Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, where phrases like 'a fico for you' express scornful dismissal. The word carries a dismissive, contemptuous connotation rather than referring literally to the fruit in modern usage.
Easily confused with fico
FICO (capitalized) is the American credit-score brand name derived from the Fair Isaac Corporation, unrelated to the word 'fico,' which means a fig.
'Figo' is the Portuguese and older Italian spelling of the same word for fig and is sometimes used interchangeably, whereas 'fico' is the form adopted into early modern English.