mafia
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]mafia (plural mafias)
- A hierarchically structured secret organisation engaged in illegal activities like distribution of narcotics, gambling and extortion.
- A crime syndicate.
- A trusted group of associates, as of a political leader.
- (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 […]
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
|
Danish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]mafia c (singular definite mafiaen, plural indefinite mafiaer)
- A mafia.
Declension
[edit]common gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
nominative | mafia | mafiaen | mafiaer | mafiaerne |
genitive | mafias | mafiaens | mafiaers | mafiaernes |
Derived terms
[edit]Finnish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]mafia
Declension
[edit]Inflection of mafia (Kotus type 12/kulkija, no gradation) | |||
---|---|---|---|
nominative | mafia | mafiat | |
genitive | mafian | mafioiden mafioitten | |
partitive | mafiaa | mafioita | |
illative | mafiaan | mafioihin | |
singular | plural | ||
nominative | mafia | mafiat | |
accusative | nom. | mafia | mafiat |
gen. | mafian | ||
genitive | mafian | mafioiden mafioitten mafiain rare | |
partitive | mafiaa | mafioita | |
inessive | mafiassa | mafioissa | |
elative | mafiasta | mafioista | |
illative | mafiaan | mafioihin | |
adessive | mafialla | mafioilla | |
ablative | mafialta | mafioilta | |
allative | mafialle | mafioille | |
essive | mafiana | mafioina | |
translative | mafiaksi | mafioiksi | |
abessive | mafiatta | mafioitta | |
instructive | — | mafioin | |
comitative | See the possessive forms below. |
Further reading
[edit]- “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 2023-07-03
French
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]mafia f (plural mafias)
- the Mafia
Further reading
[edit]- “mafia”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Galician
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]mafia f (plural mafias)
Derived terms
[edit]Italian
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- maffia (obsolete)
Etymology
[edit]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.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]mafia f (plural mafie)
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- → German: Mafia
- → Turkish: mafya
- → Maltese: mafja
- → Romanian: mafie
- → Russian: ма́фия (máfija)
- → Spanish: mafia
References
[edit]Norwegian Bokmål
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- (non-standard since 1987) maffia
Noun
[edit]mafia m (definite singular mafiaen, indefinite plural mafiaer, definite plural mafiaene)
Norwegian Nynorsk
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Noun
[edit]mafia m (definite singular mafiaen, indefinite plural mafiaer or mafiaar, definite plural mafiaene or mafiaane)
Polish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Italian mafia, from Sicilian.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]mafia f
- mafia (crime syndicate)
- Synonym: ośmiornica
- mafia (trusted group of associates, as of a political leader)
Declension
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- mafia in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
- mafia in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Sicilian
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- màfia (trisyllabic spelling)
Etymology
[edit]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.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]mafia f (plural mafi)
Usage notes
[edit]- 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
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- →? Italian: mafia
See also
[edit]Spanish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]mafia f (plural mafias)
Derived terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “mafia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Collectives
- en:Corruption
- Danish terms borrowed from English
- Danish terms derived from English
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
- Danish common-gender nouns
- Finnish terms borrowed from Italian
- Finnish terms derived from Italian
- Finnish 3-syllable words
- Finnish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Finnish/ɑfiɑ
- Rhymes:Finnish/ɑfiɑ/3 syllables
- Finnish lemmas
- Finnish nouns
- Finnish kulkija-type nominals
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French feminine nouns
- Galician terms borrowed from Italian
- Galician terms derived from Italian
- Galician lemmas
- Galician nouns
- Galician countable nouns
- Galician feminine nouns
- Italian terms with unknown etymologies
- Italian terms derived from Arabic
- Italian 2-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/afja
- Rhymes:Italian/afja/2 syllables
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian feminine nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål lemmas
- Norwegian Bokmål nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål masculine nouns
- nb:Crime
- Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas
- Norwegian Nynorsk nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk masculine nouns
- nn:Crime
- Polish terms borrowed from Italian
- Polish terms derived from Italian
- Polish terms derived from Sicilian
- Polish 2-syllable words
- Polish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Polish terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Polish/afja
- Rhymes:Polish/afja/2 syllables
- Polish lemmas
- Polish nouns
- Polish feminine nouns
- pl:Collectives
- pl:Crime
- Sicilian terms with unknown etymologies
- Sicilian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Sicilian lemmas
- Sicilian nouns
- Sicilian feminine nouns
- Spanish terms borrowed from Italian
- Spanish terms derived from Italian
- Spanish 2-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/afja
- Rhymes:Spanish/afja/2 syllables
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish feminine nouns