hoodlum

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhud.ləm, /ˈhʊd.lə̆m/

Etymology

Attested since 1871. Many sources have been proposed, but none are certain. The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests that it may derive from Bavarian German Haddalump (“ragamuffin”).

According to Herbert Asbury's book The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld (1933, A. A. Knopf, New York), 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".

Noun

hoodlum (plural hoodlums)

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

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:criminal

Derived terms

• hood

Translations

a gangster; a hired thug

• Afrikaans: rampokker
• Finnish: gangsteri (fi)
• French: bandit (fr) m

• Russian: бандит (ru) m (bandít), гопник (ru) m (gopnik)
• Sotho: tsotsi
• Spanish: matón m

a rough or violent youth

• Cebuano: bugoy
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 阿飛 (zh), 阿飞 (zh) (āfēi), 流氓 (zh) (liúmáng), 歹徒 (zh) (dǎitú)

• Finnish: hulttio (fi)
• French: voyou (fr) m

• German: Ganove (de) m
• Hindi: गुंडा m (guṇḍā)
• Japanese: チンピラ (chinpira), 与太者 (よたもの, yotamono)
• Portuguese: marginal (pt) m, f
• Russian: хулиган (ru) m (xuligán), буян (ru) m (buján)
• Spanish: matón m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Japanese: ちんぴら (chimpira)