still about semantics

Submitted by susan (Italy), Jan 6, 2007 at 10:41

read here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia

The word "mafia" is derived from the old Sicilian adjective "mafiusu" which has its roots in the Arabic mahjas, meaning "aggressive boasting, bragging". Roughly translated it means "swagger", but can also be translated as "boldness, bravado".

http://www.sicilianculture.com/mafia/mafiawords.htm

He says that some believe that the word derives from the Arabic, "either from mahias, meaning a bold man or a braggart, or from Ma afir, the name of the Saracen tribe that ruled Palermo. A third theory of Arab origin relates mafia to maha, a quarry or a cave in a rock. The mafie, the tuff caves in the Marsala region, served the persecuted Saracens as hiding places and later provided hide-outs for other fugitives" (2, Lestingi 1884).

It's a shame that also non-muslims have muslim sounding names.

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