pentito means A criminal who cooperates with police or government authorities and testifies against or provides harmful information on fellow criminals; a turncoat or informant, usually a former Mafioso. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
pentito is pronounced /pɛnˈtiːtəʊ/.
Why “pentito” is a great word
PENTITO — [Noun] A criminal, especially a former member of the Mafia, who repents and cooperates with authorities by testifying against former associates. Borrowed from Italian pentito, the past participle of pentirsi ('to repent'), from Latin paenitēre ('to repent, cause to regret'). Unlike an informant, a general provider of intelligence, or a defector, an ideological abandoner of a state, a pentito is defined by a profound, public repentance that shatters the omertà of a sealed criminal society. It is the stark white light of a witness box falling on a face once kept in shadow, the weight of a wiretap beneath a starched shirt, and the empty chair at a family wedding—a redemption purchased not with faith, but with indelible betrayal.
noun
- A criminal who cooperates with police or government authorities and testifies against or provides harmful information on fellow criminals; a turncoat or informant, usually a former Mafioso.“According to a pentito in the 2004 DDA investigation, 50 percent of the shops in Naples alone are actually run by the Camorra.”