The word mafia first entered official documents in 1865, coined outside the organization.

Evidence

A more complex case of a similarly circular nature concerns the very word mafia. Its first known appearance in an official document occurs in 1865, in a letter from the delegato di pubblica sicurezza in Carini, near Palermo, who justifies an arrest by referring to a “delitto di mafia.” The prefect of Palermo does likewise in a report to the minister of the interior later that year (Hess 1973: 2). Appendix A details no fewer than eighteen hypotheses concerning the etymology of the word; with two ludicrous exceptions, none suggests that the word originated inside the mafia. The most persuasive and accurate article to dare on this topic (Lo Monaco 1990) argues that the noun mafia derives from the adjective mafioso. It follows that the etymology of the former must be sought through the latter. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 351

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the documented first use of ‘mafia’ in an official context, useful for distinguishing the term’s external origin from the organization it names.