The article uses archival sources to critique the currently dominant etymological approach to the history of the word ’ndrangheta as used to refer to the Calabrian mafia. Scholars such as Paolo Martino and John Trumper have latched onto the word's ancient Greek origins to argue that the mafia organisation that we today call ’Ndrangheta has origins dating back many centuries. Moreover, according to Martino in particular, the flattering connotations of the word ’ndrangheta (courage, martial prowess, manliness) indicate that the ’Ndrangheta as a social phenomenon was rooted in the same positive values, and that it only later degenerated into criminality. This article proposes that the work of Martino and Trumper represents a largely evidence-free extension of etymology into the field of history. Analysing the latest archival evidence about the word from criminal trials conducted in the 1920s and early 1930s, and setting it in the context of current historiography and criminology on the ’Ndrangheta, the article argues that two conclusions about the history of the word are likely: that the use of ’ndrangheta as a name for the Calabrian mafia began at around the time it first appeared in the documentary sources; that the first to adopt it were mafiosi themselves.

本文利用档案资料批评了目前用于指代卡拉布里亚黑手党的“光荣会”一词历史的主流词源学方法。保罗·马蒂诺和约翰·特朗普等学者抓住了这个词的古希腊起源，认为我们今天称为“光荣会”的黑手党组织的起源可以追溯到几个世纪前。此外，根据马蒂诺的说法，“光荣会”这个词的奉承含义（勇气、武力、男子气概）表明光荣会作为一种社会现象植根于同样的积极价值观，只是后来才堕落为犯罪行为。本文提出，马蒂诺和特朗普的工作代表了词源学向历史领域的基本上无证据的延伸。文章分析了 1920 年代和 1930 年代初刑事审判中有关该词的最新档案证据，并将其置于当前有关“光荣会”的史学和犯罪学的背景下，认为关于该词的历史可能有两个结论：使用“光荣会”作为卡拉布里亚黑手党的名称大约是在它第一次出现在文献资料中的时候开始的；第一个采用它的是黑手党他们自己。