Picture a closed circle of people who all know each other, take orders from the same few at the top, and tell outsiders nothing. Membership is the whole point: you are either inside the circle or you are not, and the people inside look after each other first. Every use of mafia can be held next to that circle. Change what the circle controls and you change the meaning: illegal business, a profession, or, in a party game, just the secret in the room.
可以想成一個封閉的圈子。裡面的人彼此認識，聽同幾個人的話，對外面一律不說。重點在「圈內圈外」：你要嘛在裡面，要嘛在外面，而裡面的人先照顧自己人。mafia 的每個用法都可以擺回這個圈子旁邊。換掉圈子控制的東西，意思就跟著換：非法生意、一個行業，或者在派對遊戲裡，只是房間裡的那個祕密。
From the word’s history
The source records that the word was borrowed from Italian mafia and that its further origin is uncertain; several explanations have been put forward and none is settled.
來源資料說這個字借自義大利文 mafia，再往前的來源並不確定，幾種說法都沒有定論。所以只能說它從義大利文進入英文，更早的故事先留白。
Wiktionary, "mafia"
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