![]() Around 1826, the word came to mean a gang of criminals, especially thieves (a swell mob was a posse of well-dressed pickpockets), and in the late 1920s, meant a gang of violent criminals, a crime organization, and the mafia. The 17th-century meanings of mob refer to a disorderly crowd or a clique or gang. After the raid, the existence of the mafia became common knowledge. A group of mob bosses was holding what they thought was a clandestine meeting in New York State, only to be ambushed by a suspicious state trooper and other law enforcement. While the Godfather novel was published in 1969, the OED includes a citation from a 1963 transcript of a government hearing: “Are you the godfather of any other member ‘made’ since then?”Īs for why terms like godfather and goodfella began appearing in English print in the early 1960s, that could point to the Apalachin Raid, which occurred on November 14, 1957. As for godfather referring to a mafia leader, in a 1997 interview, Godfather author Mario Puzo claims to have invented the term: “It was never used for a criminal figure. The original meaning of godfather, a male godparent, is from the 13th century, while it also came to mean “an influential man” around 1830. ![]() However, the OED says the thief meaning is “obsolete,” so it’s unclear how the underworld sense of goodfella came about. A hundred years later, the word came to mean “thief,” which would be a convenient segue to the 1964 meaning of a gangster or mafia member. Goodfella began as the 15th-century goodfellow, basically someone who knew how to have a good time. “We always called each other good fellas,” Henry Hill says. It combines gang, a 12th-century term that originally referred to the action of walking (hence gangway, or road), and the suffix - ster.Īs for the popularity of the word, the use of gangster soared between 19, presumably with the rise of gangsterism during Prohibition. The word gangster has been around since at least 1884, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Whether you’re obsessed with mob movies like GoodFellas and The Godfather or are currently binge-watching The Sopranos, this list of terms is for you.
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