From Francesco Martinelli in this week’s A Word A Day (May not be linked yet).
The real mafioso are not spoken about, so there’s hardly a word for them.
“Amici” is the word actually used, but in Sicily they have the wonderful expression “uomini de panza” (”men with belly”) for local VIPs. In Turkey we say “gobeksiz erkek balkonsuz eve benzer” or “a man without a belly is like a house without a balcony”!
