hoodlum

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 or.

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 " " (to beat up Chinese migrants), after which San Francisco newspapers took to calling street gangs "hoodlums".

Noun

 * 1) A gangster; a hired thug.
 * 2) A rough or violent youth.
 * 1) A rough or violent youth.
 * 1) A rough or violent youth.

Usage notes

 * A short form, "hood," also exists.
 * A nonstandard, jocular plural (treating the word like a Latin noun) also exists.
 * The behavior of a hoodlum may be referred to as "hoodlumism."

Translations

 * Afrikaans:
 * Bulgarian:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * German:, , ,
 * Khmer: យូកូង
 * Latin: grassātor
 * Macedonian: банди́т, банди́тка
 * Polish: ,
 * Portuguese:
 * Russian: ,
 * Sotho: tsotsi
 * Spanish: matón, ,


 * Bulgarian:
 * Cebuano: bugoy
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:, ,
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * German:, , , Schlägertyp
 * Hindi:
 * Japanese: チンピラ,
 * Latin: grassātor
 * Macedonian: хулига́н
 * Occitan: malfaràs, gusàs,
 * Portuguese:
 * Russian:, , ,
 * Spanish: matón