mafie

Forms

mafie f (uncountable)^[1] Older writing also has maffie, and the Italian form Mafia is used for the Sicilian organisation itself.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian mafia.^{[3][4][5][2][1]} The Italian word comes from Sicilian, where it is recorded from the 1860s: Nocentini dates it to 1863 and the DELI to 1865, in the report of the prefect of Palermo, and Traina's Sicilian dictionary of 1868 explains it as the bearing of one who plays the bold man.^[6][7] Around 1860 in Palermo it still meant boldness or swagger, and only later in the century came to name the criminal association.^[7][6]

Its further origin is uncertain.^[1][6] Nocentini, following Prati, takes it from the personal name Italian Maffio, a popular form of Matteo (“Matthew”), with the sense “swaggering man”.^[6] He rejects the derivation from Arabic مهياص (mahyāṣ, “braggart”), which Wiktionary still mentions, because the Sicilian word is recorded too late for an Arabism;^[6][1] Lurati pointed instead to Piedmontese mafio (“boor”), recorded from the early 19th century.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is in Sadoveanu's works, and the DLR quotes the review Contemporanul of 1963 for the Sicilian secret society.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Romanian the word first named the Sicilian organisation, later spread to the United States and other countries.^[3][2] It was extended to any group of shady people with suspect dealings, and jokingly to a clique that defends its own petty interests.^[5][3] In slang it also means corruption among public officials.^[8]

Timeline

• 1963 – mafia “the Sicilian secret society” in Contemporanul.^[5]
• 1986 – the dictionary of neologisms records the spelling maffie.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually Mafia) The Mafia: the secret criminal organisation of Sicily, later spread to the United States and elsewhere, which lives by extortion and murder.^[3][4]
2. A group of people with suspect, illicit dealings.^[3][4]
3. A clique whose members back one another to defend their own interests at any cost.^[3][2]
4. (slang) Corruption among public officials.^[8]

Related words

• Italian mafia

Usage notes

The word is stressed máfie, less often mafíe.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. mafie
3. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 610
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1415
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mafie
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. mafie