omertà

See also: omerta

English

Alternative forms

• omerta

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian omertà, further etymology disputed. Some see it as a southern dialectal variant of umiltà (“humility”), from Latin humilitās, from humilis (“humble”), from humus (“ground, soil”), in which case it is a doublet of humility. Other sources (as the OED) interpret it as formed as a Sicilian calque of Spanish hombredad (“manliness”), altered to fit Sicilian Sicilian omu (“man”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌəʊmɛːˈtɑː/
• IPA^(key): /oʊˈmɛɹtə/
• Rhymes: -ɑː

Noun

omertà (countable and uncountable, plural omertàs)

1. (crime) A code of silence amongst members of a criminal organization (especially the Mafia) that forbids divulging insider secrets to law enforcement, often also followed outside of the organization in fear of retaliation; extensively, any code of silence.
   • 2005 March 4, Boston Globe:

     Patriarca pleaded guilty in December 1991 to racketeering and conspiracy charges, but he refused to admit he was a member of the Mafia, clinging to his vow of ‘omerta’ to the secret organization.

   • 2006 October 27, Los Angeles Times:

     There was a time that high-profile killings such as the 1968 assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. brought passionate cries for limitations on handguns. A bipartisan omerta now smothers the issue.

   • 2016 October, “How the FDA Manipulates the Media”, in Scientific American‎^[1]:

     The FDA was not pleased that the omertà had been broken.

Coordinate terms

• wall of silence

Translations

code of silence amongst members of the Mafia or other criminal organization

• Arabic: أُومِيرْتَا m (omertā)
• Armenian: օմերտա (ōmerta)
• Bulgarian: омерта f (omerta)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 緘默法則／缄默法则 (jiānmò fǎzé), 缄默法则 (jiānmò fǎzé)

• Czech: omerta (cs) f
• Dutch: omerta (nl) f
• Estonian: omerta (et)
• Finnish: omertà (fi), vaikenemisen laki
• French: omerta (fr) f
• German: Omertà (de) f
• Greek: ομερτά (el) f (omertá)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hebrew: אוֹמֶרְטָה f (omertáh)
• Italian: omertà (it) f
• Japanese: 血の掟 (ちのおきて, chi no okite), 沈黙の掟 (ちんもくのおきて, chinmoku no okite), オメルタの掟 (オメルタのおきて, omeruta no okite)
• Korean: 오메르타 (omereuta)
• Lithuanian: omerta f
• Persian: اومرتا (omertâ)
• Russian: омерта́ (ru) f (omertá), оме́рта (ru) f (omérta)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: омерта f

  Roman: omerta f

• Sicilian: umirtà (scn) f, umirtati (scn) f
• Ukrainian: омерта́ f (omertá)

References

• “omertà, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2019.

Anagrams

• Moreta, Teramo, amoret, morate

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Italian

Etymology

Southern dialectal form of umiltà (“humility”), from Latin humilitātem, accusative of humilitās, from humilis (“humble”), from humus (“ground, soil”). See Sicilian umirtà.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /o.merˈta/, [omerˈt̪ä]
• Rhymes: -a
• Hyphenation: o‧mer‧tà

Noun

omertà f (uncountable)

1. (rare, dialectal, southern Italy) Alternative form of umiltà (“humility”)
2. (crime) An omertà or any code of silence.

   Synonym: (wall of silence): reticenza

3. (extensively, derogatory) A form of solidarity among members of a group, constisting in hiding compromising truths; a wall of silence.

Derived terms

• omertoso

Anagrams

• remato, remota, Teramo