omerta

plural omertas

1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of omertà.

   Over the past ten years, a series of high-profile CEOs have broken unwritten omertas not to address the contentious challenges posed by climate change, human rights, and increased transparency.

   2010, Aron Cramer, Zachary Karabell, “Leadership”, in Sustainable Excellence: The Future of Business in a Fast-changing World, New York, N.Y.: Rodale, →ISBN, page 58

   3 more examples

   Patriarca [Raymond Patriarca Jr.] pleaded guilty in December 1991 to racketeering and conspiracy charges, but he refused to admit he was a member of the Mafia, clinging to his vow of "omerta" to the secret organization.

   2005 March 4, Shelley Murphy, “US seeking to seize Patriarca assets: Ex-mobster owes incarceration costs”, in The Boston Globe, volume 267, number 63, Boston, Mass.: The Globe Newspaper Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, City & Region section, page B3, column 1

   There was a time that high-profile killings such as the 1968 assassinations of Robert F[rancis] Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. brought passionate cries for limitations on handguns. A bipartisan omerta now smothers the issue.

   2006 October 27, Ross K. Baker, “Guns—the dead issue”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page A29, columns 1–2

   But although her [Carol Thatcher's] agent has invoked that tradition of post-show omerta in her defence, the truth is that few would trust these days to what it is now possibly risky to call Chinese walls.

   2009 February 7, Mark Lawson, “We're all in public now”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 Apr 2025