# Cosca

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{{Short description|Sicilian Mafia crime family}}
{{for|the village of Coşca in [Vaslui County](/source/Vaslui_County)|Ivăneşti}}
{{for|the government agency in the Thousand Oaks area of California|Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency}}
{{for|the organization of judicial officials|Conference of State Court Administrators}}
A '''''cosca''''' ({{IPA|it|ˈkɔska|lang}}; pl. ''cosche'' in [Italian](/source/Italian_language) and ''coschi'' in [Sicilian](/source/Sicilian_language)), in Sicily, is a [clan](/source/clan) or [Sicilian Mafia](/source/Sicilian_Mafia) [crime family](/source/crime_family) led by a ''[capo](/source/Caporegime)''.

The equivalent in the ['Ndrangheta](/source/'Ndrangheta) in [Calabria](/source/Calabria) is the ['ndrina](/source/'Ndrina).

==Etymology==
A ''cosca'' is the crown of spiny, closely folded leaves on plants such as the [artichoke](/source/artichoke) or the [thistle](/source/thistle), which symbolizes the tightness of relationships between mafiosi.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/cosca/|title = Còsca in Vocabolario - Treccani}}</ref>

==References==
<references />
* Blok, Anton (1974/1988). ''The Mafia of a Sicilian village 1860-1960. A study of violent peasant entrepreneurs'', Long Grove (IL): Waveland Press. {{ISBN|0-88133-325-5}}.
* Dickie, John (2004). ''[http://www.madaboutbooks.com/CosaNostra/aboutTheBook.htm Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia]'', London: Coronet. {{ISBN|978-0-340-82435-1}}.
* Servadio, Gaia (1976). ''Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day'', London: Secker & Warburg. {{ISBN|0-8128-2101-7}}.

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|cosca}}
{{crime-stub}}
{{Mafia}}

Category:Organized crime terminology
Category:Italian words and phrases

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