The wordMafia refers to an organized criminal association and oftenevokes images of mobsters, secretcrime families, and major scandals such as the2025 NBA betting and gambling case. Although scholars agree that the word originated inSicily, its exact roots remain a mystery.

In modern usagemafia is most closely associated with theSicilian Mafia or theItalianAmerican mob, but the word was not always linked toorganized crime. One theory traces it to the Sicilian wordmafiusu, used to describe someone with “swagger,” “bravado,” or “arrogance.” The 1863 playI Mafiusi della Vicaria (“Heroes of Vicaria Prison”) by Giuseppe Rizzotto and Gaspare Mosca tells the story of a defiant group of prisoners who practice behavior and customs that later became associated with the Mafia, including omertà (a code of silence). The play’s popularity may have helped spread the use of the wordsmafiusi andmafia, both of which later came to denote criminal organizations.

The word’s origins have also been linked to theArabic language. In the bookFive Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (2005), author Selwyn Raab notes that the word Mafia likely traced back to an unspecified Sicilian Arabic phrase that meant “acting as a protector against thearrogance of the powerful.” Sicily was under Arab rule from the 9th to the 11th centuries, and scholars have suggested that the word Mafia could have been inspired by several Arabic words, includingmafie,mahyas, and Maafir.

Mafie refers to the caves in the Marsala region of Sicily, where Arab forces are thought to have taken refuge from Norman raids during the 11th century. Some scholars suggest thatGiuseppe Garibaldi’s troops found shelter in these caves during the 1860 campaign to unify Italy, with the wordmafiusi roughly translating to “the brave people from the caves.”Mahyas ormahias translates to “a bold orarrogant person,” whereas Maafir was likely an Arab tribe that once ruled the region ofPalermo.

Another theory claims that the word Mafia is anacronym from themedieval anti-French slogan “Morte alla Francia Italia anela,” or “Death toFrance is Italy’s cry.”