hoodlum
Etymology
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Etymology
First attested in a December 1866 Daily Alta California article, which mentions "the 'Hoodlum Gang' of juvenile thieves". Several possible origins have been proposed. It may derive from a Germanic word like swg hudelum or Bavarian Haderlump.
Herbert Asbury's book The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld (1933, A. A. Knopf, New York) says the word originated in San Francisco from a particular street gang's call to unemployed Irishmen to "huddle 'em" (to beat up Chinese migrants), after which San Francisco newspapers took to calling street gangs "hoodlums".
Pronunciation- IPA: /ˈhuːdləm/, /ˈhʊdləm/
hoodlum (plural hoodlums)
- A gangster; a hired thug.
- Synonyms: Thesaurus:criminal
- A rough or violent youth.
- Synonyms: Thesaurus:troublemaker
- French: bandit
- German: Schläger, Ganove, Gangster, Bandit
- Portuguese: jagunço
- Russian: банди́т
- Spanish: matón, bandido, pandillero
- French: voyou
- German: Ganove, Halbstarker, Rowdy, Schlägertyp
- Portuguese: marginal
- Russian: хулига́н
- Spanish: matón
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
