英语词汇omerta的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

omerta. There may be nothing to omerta, the law of silence said to be sworn by members of the Mafia for over a thousand years in Sicily. According to Mario Puzo in The Godfather (1969): “. . . the Mafia cemented its power by originating the law of silence, the omerta. In the countryside of Sicily a stranger asking directions to the nearest town will not even receive the courtesy of an answer.” In The Last Don (1996) Puzo adds: “As a philosophy omerta was quite simple. It was a mortal sin to talk to the police about anything that would harm the Mafia. If a ri- val Mafia clan murdered your father before your eyes, you were forbidden to inform the police . . . The authorities were the Great Satan a true Sicilian could never turn to.” Richard Con- don casts more light on the practice today in Prizzi’s Money (1994): “It had almost appeared as though he had been about to violate omerta, the sacred oath of manhood of the Mafia with which, among other things, he had pledged in blood that he would never violate a woman of the family of a mafiosa. Every- one in the room knew that omerta was only a myth, something observed by the people who wrote newspaper stories and mov- ies. But he was expected . . . to pay solemn lip-service to it.”

词汇	omerta
词源	omerta. There may be nothing to omerta, the law of silence said to be sworn by members of the Mafia for over a thousand years in Sicily. According to Mario Puzo in The Godfather (1969): “. . . the Mafia cemented its power by originating the law of silence, the omerta. In the countryside of Sicily a stranger asking directions to the nearest town will not even receive the courtesy of an answer.” In The Last Don (1996) Puzo adds: “As a philosophy omerta was quite simple. It was a mortal sin to talk to the police about anything that would harm the Mafia. If a ri- val Mafia clan murdered your father before your eyes, you were forbidden to inform the police . . . The authorities were the Great Satan a true Sicilian could never turn to.” Richard Con- don casts more light on the practice today in Prizzi’s Money (1994): “It had almost appeared as though he had been about to violate omerta, the sacred oath of manhood of the Mafia with which, among other things, he had pledged in blood that he would never violate a woman of the family of a mafiosa. Every- one in the room knew that omerta was only a myth, something observed by the people who wrote newspaper stories and mov- ies. But he was expected . . . to pay solemn lip-service to it.”
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