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I thought the Z was just a fancy written one, not a double one. According to my search:
fugazi
adjective
Example: the stealing was first noticed when the fugazi bills began popping up in the bank deposits
noun
Example: it’s all a big fugazi. He’s used it as a ruse to sell a lot of stock
My first search came with “counterfeit” as first translation.
What I was trying to say is that that’s not Italian. It’s US English :)
that’s baloney!
Since you said it was possibly a surname, my guess is that someone named Fugazi was a well known counterfeiter for the mob, and the Italian Americans started using it as slang.
https://lemmy.zip/comment/28532982
According to this, I was almost right. He owned a limousine rental service with the ad tag line, “look like a rich guy.” So he was creating “fake riches.”
For me it makes sense! I also imagine the name could originally be Fugazzi with two z, as that would make more sense in Italian. And then it maybe was anglicised first as Fugazy (as said in Wiktionary) and finally Fugazi!
But that’s more of an (american) english word that vaguely looks like it has an italian origin.