mafia

See Mafia. The sense "entity which attempts to control a specified arena" makes an analogy to crime-syndicate mafias' attempts to control certain kinds of business in the regions in which they exist.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑfi.ə/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmæfi.ə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

mafia (plural mafias)

1. A hierarchically structured secret organisation engaged in illegal activities like distribution of narcotics, gambling and extortion.
2. A crime syndicate.
3. A trusted group of associates, as of a political leader.
4. (in compound terms such as "moral mafia") An entity which attempts to control a specified arena by violence or threats.
   • 1994, Francis Wheen, Lord Gnome's Literary Companion, page 161:

     Worse, it confirms what one always suspected about the 1930s literary mafia, with their graceless posing and relentless self-obsession — what terrible , terrible bores they were.

   • 2000, Senator Robert Torricelli, Andrew Carroll, In Our Own Words: Extraordinary Speeches of the American Century, page 432:

     Since the victory of gadgetry is "inevitable," you might as well come along quietly and let us smother you in speed and convenience, says the digital mafia.

   • 2019, Anne Holt, In Dust and Ashes, page 83:

     I can scarcely leave the apartment without being engulfed by journalists, not to mention the fucking left-wing activists and the multicultural mafia that assailed me with spitting and verbal abuse the last time I ventured out […]

Borrowed from English mafia.

mafia c (singular definite mafiaen, plural indefinite mafiaer)

1. A mafia.

• mafiafamilie

From Italian mafia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑfiɑ/, [ˈmɑ̝fiɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -ɑfiɑ
• Syllabification^(key): ma‧fi‧a
• Hyphenation^(key): ma‧fia

mafia

1. mafia

• “mafia”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

• IPA^(key): /ma.fja/

• Audio:

  (file)

mafia f (plural mafias)

1. the Mafia

• “mafia”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from Italian mafia.

mafia f (plural mafias)

1. Mafia (Italian Mafia)
2. Mafia (any criminal organisation)

   Synonym: cartel

• mafioso

• maffia (obsolete)

Uncertain.^[1] Maybe from Arabic مَهْيَاص (mahyāṣ, “cocky, bragger”)^[2] (compare Hebrew מָחַץ (“makháts”) to crush, though Piedmontese mafio^[3][4] is considered another possible source. Compare Sicilian mafia for more.

• IPA^(key): /ˈma.fja/
• Rhymes: -afja
• Hyphenation: mà‧fia

mafia f (plural mafie)

1. the Mafia (International organized crime organization)
2. mafia (Individual branch)
3. arrogance

• mafioso
• mafiologo
• mafiosità

• → German: Mafia
• → Turkish: mafya
• → Maltese: mafja
• → Romanian: mafie
• → Russian: ма́фия (máfija)
• → Spanish: mafia

• (non-standard since 1987) maffia

mafia m (definite singular mafiaen, indefinite plural mafiaer, definite plural mafiaene)

1. mafia, Mafia

• (non-standard since 1987) maffia

mafia m (definite singular mafiaen, indefinite plural mafiaer or mafiaar, definite plural mafiaene or mafiaane)

1. mafia, Mafia

Borrowed from Italian mafia, from Sicilian.

• IPA^(key): /ˈma.fja/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -afja
• Syllabification: ma‧fia

mafia f (related adjective mafijny)

1. mafia (crime syndicate)

   Synonym: ośmiornica

2. mafia (trusted group of associates, as of a political leader)

• mafia in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• mafia in Polish dictionaries at PWN

• màfia (trisyllabic spelling)

Uncertain. The first official sources in which this term appears date back to 1863 in the title of the theatrical work "I mafiusi de la Vicaria" set in the Vicaria prison in Palermo and written by Giuseppe Rizzotto and Gaetano Mosca. In 1865, in a report by the prefect of Palermo, Filippo Antonio Gualterio, this term was used for the first time, in its Italian geminated variant maffia, with the meaning of a criminal and subversive organization that brought together delinquents, pro-Mazzinians (i.e. republicans) and pro-Bourbons (i.e. anti-Savoyards) with the aim of overthrowing the newborn Kingdom of Italy. Outside of these official sources, the etymology in question is often associated with an uncertain Arabism or with various terms of various origins, including several dialectal origins from the rest of Italy, such as from Piedmont or from Tuscany. In any case, many of the hypotheses proposed are merely speculative and fail to resolve the main phono-morphological disagreements. In particular, it must be emphasized that this word may have been possibly used as an exonym referring to dissidents following the annexation of the island of Sicily, then acquiring the widespread meaning.

• IPA^(key): /ˈma.fja/ (synaeretic)
• IPA^(key): /ˈma.fɪ.a/ (diaeretic)
• Hyphenation: mà‧fia

mafia f (plural mafi)

1. the Mafia (International organized crime organization)
2. a mafia (an individual branch)
3. arrogance

• Among the speakers it was not common to refer to mafia in public or political speaking
• The use of the word often derived from an exchange with non-island people, so its main meaning is often borrowed

• →? Italian: mafia

Borrowed from Italian mafia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmafja/ [ˈma.fja]
• Rhymes: -afja
• Syllabification: ma‧fia

mafia f (plural mafias)

1. Mafia (Italian Mafia)
2. Mafia (any criminal organization)

   Synonym: cartel

• “mafia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024