Glossary entry
Zips
ZIPS
Definition
ZIPS
American members' term for Sicilian-born men brought into the family directly from Sicily, particularly from the 1960s onwards. Used with a mixture of wariness and disdain.
“The zips kept to themselves, spoke Sicilian among each other, and were trusted with the heroin because nobody expected them to talk.”
The origin of the word is not settled. The explanations offered range from the speed of spoken Sicilian to a contraction of a slur, and none of them is documented well enough to state.
What the term marks is a real division. American-born members regarded the imported Sicilians as archaic, insular and dangerous; the Sicilians regarded the Americans as diluted. Both were correct about the other in ways that mattered, and the heroin trafficking of the 1970s ran largely through the men the Americans were pleased to keep at arm's length.