Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Black Hand

Black Hand

1 9.5
A secret criminal group that extorted people and used violence in Italian American neighborhoods
  • noun
  • /blæk hænd/
  • US
translation icon : Mano Negra
  • The Black Hand was feared for its brutal tactics and involvement in extortion within the Italian-American community.

Examples

  • The car stops directly in front of Black Hand member Gabriello Princip, who shot them both.

  • The police launched an investigation to dismantle the operations of the notorious Black Hand gang.

  • Do you know the story of the Black Hand?

    Hideous Kinky (1999)

  • So they asked the Black Hand for a special favour.

    Hideous Kinky (1999)

  • The Black Hand left one clue on the necks of its victims - a sooty print of its thumb.

    Hideous Kinky (1999)

  • She's researching the Black Hand and that's all.

  • Historians often discuss the influence of the Black Hand on organized crime in early 20th-century America.

Synonyms

Maffia
vsBlack Hand
  • Archaic
9.1

A secret criminal group from Sicily that controls illegal activities

is US based and focused on early twentieth century extortion in Italian American communities

Surface Forms

Black Hand singular
Black Hands plural

Morphology

black + Hand

This is a proper name for a specific historical criminal/terrorist organization; its reference to an early 20th-century secret society cannot be deduced from the literal meanings of 'black' and 'hand'. While 'black' can suggest secrecy or wrongdoing and 'hand' can imply agency, those vague cues are insufficient for a B1 learner to infer the precise organizational and historical meaning, so the expression is idiomatic and unpredictable.

Etymology

Black Hand comes from criminals in the early 1900s who sent threatening letters marked with a dark drawing of a hand to frighten people and demand money. So Black Hand came to mean a secret criminal group that used threats to get money, or 'extortion'.