Pizzo (mafia)

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The pizzo (Italian: [ˈpittso]) is protection money paid to the Mafia often in the form of a forced transfer of money resulting from extortion. The term is derived from the Sicilian pizzu ('beak'). To "let someone wet their beak" (Sicilian: fari vagnari u pizzu) is to pay protection money. The practice used to be widespread in Southern Italy, not only by the Sicilian Cosa Nostra but also by the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Camorra in Campania. Another etymological explanation of the term is "beakerful", referring to the right of an overseer to scoop from the grain being threshed by peasants. The term pizzu, in the sense of "protection money", may have originated as prison slang and may have been popularized by the Sicilian-language play I mafiusi di la Vicarìa, first performed in 1863. In an 1857 Sicilian dictionary, pizzu is defined only as "beak", whereas an 1868 dictionary includes the figurative sense of protection money. Paying the pizzo may involve adding someone (often a member...

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