CONSIGLIERE: used by host Tucker Carlson on Tucker Carlson Tonight, July 8, 2020
Mr. Carlson referred to socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, accused of aiding the late Jeffrey Epstein in sexually abusing underage girls, as Mr. Epstein’s “consigliere.”
Technically, a consigliere, pronounced cone’-sill-YEHR’-ee, is a counselor or advisor to the leader of a criminal organization, such as a Mafia family.
But the word can also refer to any advisor, consultant, or counselor who gives advice to a powerful person on unsavory topics (criminal acts, dirty politics, etc.).
Consigliere comes from the Italian consiglio, ‘advice.’
Plural: consiglieri, pronounced the same as the singular.
In Print: New York Times, Oct. 3, 2008
Anthony Spero, 79, Served as Mob Clan’s Consigliere, Is Dead
“For more than three decades, Mr. Spero served the Bonanno family, one of five Mafia clans in New York City, in a variety of roles, rising to consigliere and taking over as acting family boss when his superiors, Philip Rastelli and Joseph Massino, were in prison.”