Gangster

  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Gangster

Definition: Gangster

Gangster

Noun

1. A criminal who is a member of gang.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

 

Specialty Definition: Gangster

DomainDefinition

Biographical Satire

GANGSTER, T. H. E., a politician known as a "progressive" when out of office. Source: Who was Who: 5000BC - 1914.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Gangster

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Gangsters are members of a professional crime organization, i.e. a gang. Famous examples of such organizations include the Mafia, Crips and Yakuza.

Gangsters typically run their operations as a pseudo-business in that they do offer some product or service, albeit an illegal one, for paying customers, rather than outright theft, although they engage in plenty of that as well. For example during the prohibition era, gangsters monopolized the alcohol trade, in the 1950s it was gambling, and today it is narcotics. Other classic gangster endeavours include prostitution and charging local businesses "protection money" as if the gang were a private security firm, when in fact the payments are made solely to protect the business from the gangsters themselves. In other words indirect armed robbery or extortion. They frequently take over or wield undue influence in labor unions.

Gangsters also are known for attempting to manipulate the outcome of civil institutions, such as court cases and political elections, through bribery and intimidation. When gangsters become particularly powerful, they may eventually develop reciprocal relationships with law enforcement they have managed to corrupt. In this situation the police are handsomely paid off, and in exchange they ignore their patron's illicit activites, and may even assist them, by directly taking part in crimes, or by arresting competitors.

Today a corruption of the word, "gangsta", has become fashionable in rap music, and no longer necessarily refers to a criminal.

Famous individual gangsters include:

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Mafia

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Mafia (sometimes referred to as La Cosa Nostra, or "our thing" in Italian) was originally the name of a loose confederation of people in Sicily centuries ago joined for the purposes of protection and vigilante law enforcement, and later engaged in organized crime. A member of the mafia is a "mafioso", or a "man of honor". The mafia spread to the United States through immigration by the 20th century. Mafia power peaked in the United States in the mid-20th century, until a series of FBI investigations in the 1970s and 1980s somewhat curtailed the mafia's influence.

The term "mafia" has now been extended to refer to any large group of people engaged in organized crime (compare 'Russian mafia' and the Japanese yakuza), or in suspicious activity (compare the "trenchcoat mafia" of Columbine High School). When unqualified, "mafia" still usually refers to the original Sicilian/American organizations.

Origins and History

Main article: History of the Mafia

The Sicilian mafia originated hundreds of years ago as a kind of protection society during the Spanish occupation of Sicily. The locals felt they could not trust the Spanish law-enforcement officials, and so formed their own protection societies, which developed into the mafia.

This role as protector extended to the early 20th century mafias in the United States, where newly arrived Italian immigrants often spoke no English and settled in the same districts of American cities. Many Americans were suspicious and mistrustful of recent immigrants, especially those with a limited command of English. Some Italians felt that they could not rely on the often corrupt and prejudiced local law-enforcement officials for protection, and turned to the mafiosi instead.

The mafia's fundraising activities have included legitimate business endeavors as well as many illegal activities such as extortion (obtained through such means as subverting trade unions), smuggling of alcohol during prohibition, prostitution, drug smuggling, illegal gambling, as well as simple theft. Las Vegas was transformed from a sleepy desert town into a gambling capital of the world through mafia investment, notably through the efforts of Bugsy Siegel.

The Mafia in Italy

In Italy, organizations like the mafia have existed for centuries, and differ in different regions. Until the 1950s the Italian mafia had mainly rural bases, but thereafter it spread to the cities (e.g. Palermo) and subsequently became more internationally oriented, concentrating on drugs and prostitution. The Italian mafia is organized in families and cosche (clans) in Sicily; in other regions there exist other similar organisations: Ndrangheta in Calabria, Sacra corona unita in Apulia, Camorra in Naples.

During the Fascist period in Italy, Cesare Mori, the prefect of Palermo, utilised special powers to fight mafia activities, and his work resulted in many mafiosi being jailed or forced to flee abroad. It has been said that in reality, the most important leaders of the Sicilian mafia were enrolled in the MVSN, the fascist Militia, and only low-level suspects were charged in Mori's campaign, mainly for propaganda purposes. However, others claim that this version is nothing but US propaganda trying to relativize the cooperation of the United States government and the mafia during World War II. The mafia did not become powerful in Italy again until after the country's surrender in the Second World War.

Many of the mafiosi who escaped fled to the United States. Among them was Joseph Bonanno, who eventually dominated the US branch of the mafia. The Americans took advantage of the circumstances, and used connections of mafia in Sicily during the invasion in 1943. Lucky Luciano and other members of mafia, imprisoned during this time in USA, suddenly become valuable patriots and joined the US in fight against Fascism. The new American ally Lucky Luciano was pardoned and went to Sicily in 1946 to continue his activities.

Law enforcement and the Mafia

Throughout the 20th century, attempts by governments to eliminate their activities have been made difficult by the sophisticated, hands-off nature of their operations, bribery and blackmail of law enforcement officers, judges, and politicians, and a tradition (enforced through violence) of not providing information to police to reduce one's own punishment. Mafia members hold to omerta, a strict code of silence whereby members do not reveal any information about the group's activities to outsiders, even if doing so would bring more favorable treatment from law enforcement. In exchange, the organization would take care of members' families while they were incarcerated. Conversely, members who broke omerta and revealed information to law enforcement were subject to assassination. Omerta provided powerful protection against law enforcement attempts to topple the organization for many years, with very few members willing to break the code.

In Italy in particular, there has been a long history of police prosecutors and judges being murdered by the mafia in an attempt to discourage vigorous policing. In the United States, murders of state authorities have been rare, largely out of fear of the backlash that would result. The mobster Dutch Schultz was reported killed by his peers out of fear that he would carry out a plan to kill New York City prosecutor Thomas Dewey.

In the United States, the mafia began a steep decline in the late-1970s and early 1980s due in part to laws such as the RICO Act, which made it a crime to belong to an organization that performed illegal acts and to programs such as the witness protection program. These factors combined with the gradual dissolution of the distinct Italian-American community through death, intermarriage, the lack of continued Italian migration, and cultural assimilation.

In the mid-20th century, the mafia was reputed to have infiltrated many labor unions in the United States, including the Teamsters whose president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared and is believed to have been killed by the mafia. In the 1980s the United States federal government made a determined and, it believed, successful attempt to remove mafia influence from labor unions.

There is some evidence that in Italy law enforcement seem to be finally gaining the upper hand over the mafia organisations, through stronger laws and the breaking down of the "code of silence". A huge help in fighting the military side of mafia has been provided many so-called pentiti (mafia members who dissociated for a milder judicial treatment), like Tommaso Buscetta. The mafia allegedly retains strong financial influence. Thus, recent investigations usually research the economic movements of suspected members.

In recent decades, one of the most famous figures in Italy in the context of mafia has been Toto Riina, supposed to have ordered the murder of the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Recently, former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti (Democrazia Cristiana) stood judicially accused of relationships with mafia, but was finally cleared.

Society

Mafia groups in the United States first became influential in the New York City area, gradually progressing from small neighborhood operations to citywide and even international organizations. Five families dominated, named for prominent early members - the Bonanno family, the Colombo family, the Gambino family, the Genovese family, and the Lucchese family.

Each family was ultimately controlled by a boss, who was insulated from actual operations by several layers of authority. The boss' closest and most trusted advisor was referred to as the consigliere ("counselor" in Italian). An underboss was possible as well. There were then a number of regimes with a varying number of soldiers who conducted actual operations. Each regime was headed by a caporegime, who reported to the boss. When the boss made a decision, he never issued orders directly to the soldiers who would carry it out, but instead passed instructions down through the chain of command. In this way, the higher levels of the organization were effectively insulated from incrimination if a lower level member should be captured by law enforcement.

Initiation rituals were secret and passed down via oral tradition, though they are rumoured to involve burning a card with the picture of a saint on it and tossing the flaming pieces from hand to hand. Members initiated into this organization were referred to as made men and were under the protection of their family. A hit, or assassination, of a made man had to be preapproved by the leadership of his family, or retaliatory hits would be made, possibly inciting a war. In a state of war, families would go to the mattresses - rent vacant apartments and have a number of soldiers sleeping on mattresses on the floor in shifts, with the others ready at the windows to fire at rival family members.

The Five New York Mafia Families

Other Known Mafiosi and associated individuals

Countries with suspected mafia activity

Movies and Books Portraying the Mafia

See Also

Island

Mafia is also an island of Tanzania, Africa, south of Zanzibar; pop. 40,000, 394km² .

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mafia."

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Synonym: Gangster

Synonym: mobster (n). (additional references)

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Crosswords: Gangster

English words defined with "gangster": Al Capone, Alphonse Capone, ApacheCaponeEdward G. Robinson, Edward Goldenberg Robinsongangster's moll, gun mollmoll, musclemanrake-off, RobinsonScarfacevigorish. (references)
Specialty definitions using "gangster": Baby LokeO.G.. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Gangster" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Albanian (bandit, gangster, mobster, mug), Czech (bandit, gangsman, gangster), Danish (gangster, hoodlum), Dutch (gangster, hoodlum), French (gangster, gorilla, hijacker, mugger, racketeers, thug), German (bandit, gangster, gangsters, gunman, hood, hoodlum, mobster, racketeer, raider, thug), Italian (gangster, mobster), Romanian (gangster, mobster), Serbo-Croatian (gangsman, gangster), Swedish (gangsman, gangster, gun, highbinder, mobster, racketeer, thug), Turkish (gangster, gunsel, hoodlum, mobster, plugugly, racketeer).

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Modern Usage: Gangster

DomainUsage

Screenplays

Are gangster and horror films all you produce (The Sinister Urge; writing credit: Edward D. Wood Jr.)

Ahh, my cousin's so dumb he thinks Eggs Benedict's a mafia gangster! (The Muppet Show; writing credit: Joseph A. Bailey; Jack Burns)

As the candy hearts poured into the fiery quasar a wondrous thing happened, why not. They vaporized into a mystical love radiation that spread across the universe destroying many, many planets, including two gangster planets and a cowboy world (Futurama; writing credit: Lance Smith; Carl Colpaert)

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. (Goodfellas; writing credit: Nicholas Pileggi)

You know, I often thought that the gangster and the artist are the same in the eyes of the masses (The Killing; writing credit: Stanley Kubrick; Jim Thompson)

Lyrics

It was the gangster rap and the peppermint Schnapps (Murder Murder (Remix) *; performing artist: Eminem)

Your sweet like sugar with your gangster talk (Around the Way Girl; performing artist: L.L. Cool J)

Movie/TV Titles

Ang Gangster at ang birhen (1972)

C'era una volta un gangster (1969)

Gangster (1969)

Historia de un gangster (1968)

Gangster '70 (1968)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Gangster

DomainTitle

Books

  

Theater & Movies

  

Music

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Gangster

Computer Images:
Gangster

More pictures...

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Photo Album: Gangster

ThumbnailDescription & Credit

Joseph Valachi as a bird singing to "Cosa Nostra" gangster. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Gangster

SubjectTopicQuote

Health

Terms from years ago, such as pot, herb, grass, weed, Mary Jane, and reefer, are still used. You might also hear the names Aunt Mary, skunk, boom, gangster, kif, or ganja. (references)

Human Rights

Haiti

The violence was blamed on gangs led by Ronald Camille and his brother Franco Camille, also a gangster with connections to the Government. (references)

Colombia

At year's end, paramilitary and "La Terraza" gangster Juan Pablo Ortiz Agudelo (alias "Bochas"), already convicted and imprisoned for another murder, was appealing charges filed against him for the 1999 murder in Bogota of journalist, comedian, and human rights activist Jaime Garzon Forero. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Gangster

"Gangster" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.58% of the time. "Gangster" is used about 141 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (singular)98.58%13926,913
Noun (proper)1.42%2245,945
                    Total100.00%141N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Gangster

Hyphenated Usage

Beginning with "gangster": gangster-like, gangster-movie, gangster-run.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Gangster

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

gangster

1,175

gangster art

36

gangster 2

222

black gangster disciple

35

gangster disciple

220

gangster drawing

32

2 cheat gangster

149

chipmunk gangster rap

28

gangster paradise

139

gangster disciple nation

27

gangster picture

134

gangster cheat

26

star war gangster rap

107

gangster photo

26

gangster game

86

gangster girl

26

gangster sim

80

1920s gangster

25

gangster name

67

2 cheat code gangster

25

2 gangster through walk

66

mexican gangster

25

gangster rap

64

gangster organized crime

25

gangster pic

52

gangster car

24

2 gangster trainer

51

famous gangster

24

cartoon gangster

51

gangster costume

24

gangster tattoo

48

gangster hat

23

gangster poem

44

gangster wallpaper

22

gangster movie

38

gangster quote

21

gangster paradise lyrics

38

2 code gangster

20

gangster generator name

37

chicago gangster tour

20
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Gangster

Language Translations for "gangster"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

gangster (bandit, mobster, mug), bandit (bandit, brigand, gorilla, gun, gunman, mosstrooper, outlaw, picaroon, reaver, reiver, rover, thief, thug). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏مجرم (criminal, culprit, delinquent, evil doer, felon, guilty, malefactor, miscreant, perpetrator), ‏قاطع طريق (bandit, brigand, mugger, thug), ‏عضو في عصابة, ‏رجل عصابة (gangsman). (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

гангстер (goon, gunman, henchman, highbinder, hood, hoodlum, mobster, plug ugly, thug). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

匪' (bandit). (various references)

   

Czech

  

gangster (bandit, gangsman). (various references)

   

Danish

  

gangster (hoodlum). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

gangster (hoodlum). (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

gangstero (hoodlum). (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

همدست تبه کاران , گانگستر, اوباش (Hood, Hoodlum, Picaroonp, Vagrant), اراذل . (various references)

   

French

  

gangster. (various references)

   

German

  

gangster (bandit, gangsters, gunman, hood, hoodlum, mobster, racketeer, raider, thug), verbrecher (convict, criminal, criminals, felon, felons, malefactor, perpetrator, thug, villain). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

κακοποιόσ (evil doer, malefactor, misdoer, mugger), κακοποιό μέλοσ συμμορίασ, συμμορίτησ, συμμορίτης (gang member), γκάνγκστερ, εγκληματίασ (criminal, delinquent, outlaw, recidivist). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

פושע (apostate, criminal, felon, peccant), ' 'סטר (mobster). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

gengszter (hijacker, hood, hoodlum, mobster, plug ugly, racketeer, thug). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

penjahat (bandit, criminal, delinquent, desperado, felon, scum, tough, villain), kakap (kind of large fish, large scale (firm), brandal (rascal), berandal (bandit, rascal, scoundrel), bandit (bandit, blackguard). (various references)

   

Italian

  

gangster (mobster), malvivente (criminal, delinquent), bandito (bandit, brigand, desperado, gunman, highwayman, outlaw, raider, ruffian). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

與太者 (good-for-nothing, hooligan, layabout), 暴力団" (mobster), 暴力団 (band of thugs, gangster organization), 与太者 (good-for-nothing, hooligan, layabout). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

ぼうりょく "い" (mobster), ぼうりょく " (band of thugs, gangster organization), よたもの (good-for-nothing, hooligan, layabout). (various references)

   

Korean 

  

. (various references)

   

Manx

  

gengeyr. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

angstergay.(various references)

   

Portuguese

  

bandido (bandit, bravo, desperado, hoodlum, outlaw, robber, ruffian, thug). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

gangster (mobster), tâlhar (brigand, captor, cracksman, footpad, harrier, highwayman, lurcher, miscreant, robber, rogue, scoundrel, sharp, thief), tâlhãresc (flash, thievish), bandit (bandit, bravo, brigand, highwayman, murderer, ruffian, villain), apaş (hooligan, ruffian). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

гангстер (mobster). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

gangster (gangsman). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

pandillero (mobster), gángster (mobster). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

gangster (gangsman, gun, highbinder, mobster, racketeer, thug). (various references)

   

Thai

  

เหล่าร้าย. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

gangster (gunsel, hoodlum, mobster, plugugly, racketeer), haydut (bandit, brigand, filibuster, footpad, hoodlum, little perisher, mobster, mugger, outlaw, plugugly, robber, thug), çeteci (brigand, franc-tireur, guerilla, guerrilla, hooligan, punk). (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

гангстер, бандит (apache, bandit, bully, killer, mobster, mosstrooper, outlaw). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

găngxtơ (racketeer), kẻ cướp (brigand, freebooter, ladrone, marauder, plunderer, reiver, robber). (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Gangster

Derivations

Words beginning with "gangster": gangsterdom, gangsterdoms, gangsterish, gangsterism, gangsterisms, gangsters. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Gangster" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: angster, Gangotri, gangser, gangsta, gangtok, ganster, Ginestet, Ginster, sagster. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Gangster"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "gangster" (pronounced ga"ngster)
4-ng s t eryoungster.
3-s t erdumpster, duster, Easter, adjuster, administer, alabaster, ancestor, aster, banister, bannister, barrister, blaster, blister, blockbuster, bluster, bolster, booster, broadcaster, burgomaster, Buster, canister, cannister, caster, Castor, cloister, cluster, coaster, concertmaster, coster, Dempster, Dexter, digester, disaster, ester, faster, Feaster, fester, filibuster, fluster, forecaster, Forester, Foster, gangbuster, Gaster, grandmaster, hamster, harvester, headmaster, heister, holster, huckster, imposter, impostor, investor, jester, juster, keister, kiester, lackluster, laster, Leister, Lister, lobster, Luster, lustre, master, minister, Minster, Mister, mobster, molester, monster, muenster, Munster, muster, nester, Nestor, newscaster, oldster, oleaster, ouster, oyster, paster, pastor, pester, pilaster, plaster, pollster, polyester, poster, postmaster, prankster, protester, quartermaster, raster, register, requester, rester, ringmaster, roadster, roaster, roister, rooster, roster, royster, schoolmaster, scoutmaster, seamster, semester, sequester, shyster, sinister, sister, spinster, sportscaster, stepsister, taskmaster, taster, teamster, tester, thruster, tipster, toaster, toastmaster, transistor, trickster, trimester, twister, Ulster, upholster, waster, Webster, Wester, zoster.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Gangster

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "a-e-g-g-n-r-s-t"

-1 letter: argents, gagster, gangers, gargets, garnets, granges, naggers, stagger, strange, taggers.

-2 letters: agents, aggers, angers, antres, argent, astern, eggars, gagers, ganger, garget, garnet, gaster, grange, grants, grates, greats, nagger, ranges, retags, sagger, sanger, seggar, stager, sterna, strang, tagger, targes.

-3 letters: agent, agers, agger, anger, angst, antes, antre, aster, earns, eggar, etnas, gager, gages, gangs.

 Words containing the letters "a-e-g-g-n-r-s-t"
 

+1 letter: gangsters, restaging, segregant.

 

+2 letters: absterging, estranging, gangbuster, gatherings, segregants, staggering.

 

+3 letters: congregants, congregates, gangbusters, gangsterdom, gangsterish, gangsterism, juggernauts, segregating, segregation, strangering, teargassing, tobogganers.

 

+4 letters: aggregations, categorising, congregators, gangsterdoms, gangsterisms, ingatherings, ingurgitates, segregations, slaughtering, staggeringly, strategizing, unsegregated.

 

+5 letters: aggregateness, aggrievements, congregations, desegregating, desegregation, exaggerations, magnetographs, nonsegregated, reengagements, resegregating, resegregation, straightening, theatergoings, transgressing.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Images: Photo Album
8. Quotations: Non-fiction
9. Usage Frequency
10. Expressions
11. Expressions: Internet
12. Translations: Modern
13. Derivations
14. Rhymes
15. Anagrams
16. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.