Mafia
 The Mafia, also referred to in Italian as La Cosa Nostra (variously translated as This Thing Of Ours or Our Thing), is the name for a secret, criminal organisation which evolved in mid 19th century Sicily, and led to an offshoot on the East-Coast of the United States emerging during the late 19th century with the waves of Italian immigration to that country. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The term "Mafia" describes a specific secret society in Sicily and their descendants in the USA, yet the word itself has no pin-pointed historical birthplace. In the original Palermo dialect the word 'mafioso' once meant 'beautiful', 'bold' or 'self-confident'. Anyone who was worthy of being described as a mafioso therefore had a certain something, an intangible attribute called 'mafia'. 'Cool' is about the closest modern English equivalent; a mafioso was someone who fancied himself. In fact it was the early Italian government which attached specific criminal connotations to the word and turned it into a subject of national debate. It was following the Prefect of Palermo, Filippo Gualterio's report to Rome in 1865, citing that "the so-called Mafia or criminal associations" had become more daring, that the word rapidly entered general usage as a descriptor of criminal activity. This ties in with the theory that the word 'mafia' in Palermo dialect, came from an Arabic word adopted during the Arab occupation of Sicily, "maafeyya" meaning exempted.
La Cosa Nostra: Cosa Nostra is the name by which members of the Mafia in the United States refer to the organization. The term is believed to have been coined by Salvatore Maranzano in the spring of 1931 when he named himself Capo di tutti capi, or "boss of all bosses" of Italian-American organized crime, after hi... 19th century: :Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical)... Sicily: Sicily (Sicilia in Italian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,700 sq. km and 5 million inhabitants.... Mafia related Images and Photos (experimental)
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~ Related Subjects ~Italian-American (1) - Joe Masseria (1) - 1931 (1) - United States (1) - Salvatore Maranzano (1) - Island (1) - Mediterranean Sea (1) - Italy (1) - Castellammarese War (1) - Italian (1) - USA (1) - Palermo (1) - Sicily (1) - La Cosa Nostra (1) - 19th century (1) -~ Community ~
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