The word mafia took on its criminal meaning through a Palermo play.

Evidence

Although Pitre is generally acknowledged as the first proponent of this hypothesis, in a letter written in 1880 signed F. Lestingi, Procuratore del Re, we read: “[The word mafia] was adopted in, as it were, an official fashion, after a comedy performed in Palermo in 1870” (1880, p. 292). He has the date wrong and does not mention the title, but he is probably referring to Rizzotto’s play. Cesare Lombroso also alludes to it (1889: I, 565). This hypothesis is now largely accepted; Salvatore Romano, for instance, in his history of the mafia, writes: “It is certain that the transposition of the term to its specific meaning of an association of courageous and violent people with a propensity to behave like criminals can be traced to the dissemination of the term which followed Rizzotto’s play” (1964: 116). — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 958

Categorization

• DEFINE: Etymology of ‘mafia’ — the term’s criminal meaning spread via Rizzotto’s 1870 play, not older folk usage.