{{Short description|Sicilian Mafia crime family}} {{for|the village of Coşca in 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 and ''coschi'' in Sicilian), in Sicily, is a clan or Sicilian Mafia crime family led by a ''capo''.
The equivalent in the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria is the 'ndrina.
==Etymology== A ''cosca'' is the crown of spiny, closely folded leaves on plants such as the artichoke or the 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