omertà
名词 n.
英 /ˌəʊmɛːˈtɑː/
美 /ˌoʊmɛɹˈtɑ/|/oʊˈməɹtə/|[-ɾə]
英文释义
名词 n.
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A code of silence amongst members of the Mafia that forbids divulging insider secrets to law enforcement, often also followed outside of the organization for fear of retaliation.
— Here we have the unfortunate heirloom of corrupt government—Omertà (a Sicilian word, meaning silence on the part of witnesses to a deed of blood). The Government arrests a delinquent and has him tried before a court; but the latter, for want of witnesses, cannot condemn. "We dare not speak," say the victims themselves; "the robber has powerful friends in these parts; we might be made to suffer worse than we have to complain of; it is better to bear with the past than to ruin the future."
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Any code of silence (especially about something illegal or secret), or refusal to talk openly about something.
— The unspoken emotions he [John McGahern] dissects expose a repressive world of ordinary people from both sides in the civil war of 1922: of policemen, nurses and teachers; of ancient hatreds passed down from generation to generation, submerged in the Irish omertàs which make taboo so many aspects of tenderness and sexual expression; of the fear and secrecy surrounding the country's age-old political vendettas.
词源
PIE word
*dʰéǵʰōm
Unadapted borrowing from Italian omertà; further etymology uncertain—the following have been suggested:
* from Spanish hombredad (“manliness”) (archaic), with the spelling aligned with Sicilian omu (“man”). Hombredad is derived from hombre (“man”) + -edad (variant of -dad (suffix forming nouns denoting a state of being)). However, the expected Sicilian output from a Spanish borrowing would have been *ummirità ~ *ummiritati.
* from Sicilian umirtà (“humility”) (referring to the Mafia code’s requirement of obedience to the leader), from Latin humilitās (“obedience, submission”), from humilis (“humble; abject, submissive”) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns denoting a state of being); with humilis from humus (“floor, ground; earth, soil”) + -ilis (suffix forming an adjective of relation). If so, the English word is a doublet of humility. However, the Oxford English Dictionary takes the view that this is “not well supported by the geographical distribution of the word”.
*dʰéǵʰōm
Unadapted borrowing from Italian omertà; further etymology uncertain—the following have been suggested:
* from Spanish hombredad (“manliness”) (archaic), with the spelling aligned with Sicilian omu (“man”). Hombredad is derived from hombre (“man”) + -edad (variant of -dad (suffix forming nouns denoting a state of being)). However, the expected Sicilian output from a Spanish borrowing would have been *ummirità ~ *ummiritati.
* from Sicilian umirtà (“humility”) (referring to the Mafia code’s requirement of obedience to the leader), from Latin humilitās (“obedience, submission”), from humilis (“humble; abject, submissive”) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns denoting a state of being); with humilis from humus (“floor, ground; earth, soil”) + -ilis (suffix forming an adjective of relation). If so, the English word is a doublet of humility. However, the Oxford English Dictionary takes the view that this is “not well supported by the geographical distribution of the word”.
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数据来源: Wiktionary