mafioso

[ mah-fee-oh-soh ]
See synonyms for mafioso on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural ma·fi·o·si [mah-fee-oh-see], /ˌmɑ fiˈoʊ si/, ma·fi·o·sos.(sometimes initial capital letter)
  1. a member of a Mafia or of a mafia.

Origin of mafioso

1
First recorded in 1870–75; from Sicilian mafiusu “arrogance, bravado,” of disputed origin; perhaps ultimately from Arabic marfūḍ “outcast” (compare archaic Italian malfusso “wretched,” archaic Spanish marfuz “deceitful, rejected”); perhaps ultimately from Arabic mahyāṣ “braggart, show-off”

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How to use mafioso in a sentence

  • The ancestors of the mafiosi used to call themselves Cristiani—that is Men in the sense of men of courage and silence.

    Castellinaria | Henry Festing Jones

British Dictionary definitions for mafioso

mafioso

/ (ˌmæfɪˈəʊsəʊ, Italian mafiˈoso) /


nounplural -sos or -si (Italian -si)
  1. a person belonging to the Mafia

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012