Wiktionary
n. A counselor or advisor, especially to Mafia bosses.
Wikipedia
Consigliere ( Italian consigliere "counselor", pronounced , roughly ) is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian, Calabrian and American Mafia. The word was popularized by the novel The Godfather (1972), and its film adaptation. In the novel, a consigliere is an advisor or counselor to the boss, with the additional responsibility of representing the boss in important meetings both within the boss's crime family and with other crime families. The consigliere is a close, trusted friend and confidant, the mob's version of an elder statesman. In some depictions, he is devoid of ambition and dispenses disinterested advice. This passive image of the consigliere does not correspond with what little is known of real-life consiglieri, however. By the very nature of the job, a consigliere is one of the few in the family who can argue with the boss, and is often tasked with challenging the boss when needed, to ensure subsequent plans are foolproof.
A real-life Mafia consigliere is generally the number three person in a crime family, after the boss and underboss in most cases. The boss, underboss, and consigliere constitute a three-man ruling panel, or "Administration."
Usage examples of "consigliere".
Hagen was the Don’s lawyer and acting Consigliere, or counselor, and as such held the most vital subordinate position in the family business.
He brought with him his two best friends, Genco Abbandando, who was his Consigliere, and Luca Brasi.
Genco Abbandando had died at three in the morning and when Don Corleone returned from the hospital, he had informed Hagen that he was now officially the new Consigliere to the family.
The Consigliere was always a full-blooded Sicilian, and the fact that Hagen had been brought up as a member of the Don’s family made no difference to that tradition.
But no Consigliere had ever betrayed a Don, not in the memory of any of the powerful Sicilian families who had established themselves in America.
And every Consigliere knew that if he kept the faith, he would become rich, wield power and win respect.
He realized that his career as Consigliere would be seriously affected by the success or failure of this mission.
He did not really know in the ten years that followed until he was made the acting Consigliere after Genco Abbandando became ill.
If that were true, Hagen would never wish to be the Consigliere to the Don of Santino Corleone.
The other Families distrust him because he made you his Consigliere and you’re not even Italian, much less Sicilian.
He said quietly, “ As the Consigliere, you agree that it’s dangerous to the Don and our Family to let Sollozzo live?
And the Irish Consigliere, Hagen, is not the man Genco Abbandando was, God rest his soul.
There he was boarded with the Abbandandos, whose son Genco was later to become Consigliere to his Don.
And sometime during the night the Consigliere, Genco Abbandando, or perhaps even the Don himself, would drop by to pay his respects to such a stalwart, take a glass of wine in his honor, and leave a handsome present of money so that he could enjoy a week or two of leisure with his family before returning to his daily toil.
Don Corleone sent his Consigliere, Genco Abbandando, to speak to the wholesaler, and as was to be expected, that wide-awake businessman caught the drift immediately and arranged for Nazorine to get his furniture.