Thug meaning

a violent, brutal person. Where are the young thugs who robbed the old man? skurk سَفّاح، سَفّاك главорез brutamontes bandita der/die Gewaltverbrecher(in) bølle kõrilõikaja آدم جانی roisto ठग nasilnik, grubijan orgyilkos, gengszter orang jahat óþokki 暴漢 흉악한 악당 banditas bandīts samseng zbir rufião bătăuş lupič, vrah, gangster nasilnež razbojnik bandit, våldsman คนโหดร้าย 暴徒，兇手 убивця; головоріз ٹھگ، رہزن kẻ sát nhân 暴徒，凶手 They were behind with their rent all the time, but the company was good to them; there was some politics back of that, Grandmother Majauszkiene could not say just what, but the Laffertys had belonged to the "War Whoop League," which was a sort of political club of all the thugs and rowdies in the district; and if you belonged to that, you could never be arrested for anything.

A hoodlum can be anyone from a dangerous thug to a young person who's just up to no good. The exact origins of the word are not known, but one theory is that the word derives from hudelum, an adjective that means "disorderly" in dialects of German spoken in and around the region of hooligan, but that word is not related to hoodlum; rather, it most likely derives from the name of Patrick Hooligan, an Irish youth purported to have wreaked havoc in the streets of Southwark, England, in the late 19th century. Recent Examples on the Web The issue is too many thugs, hoodlums and savage criminals on our street. — CBS News, 16 Apr. 2023 The issue is not too many guns; the issue is too many thugs, hoodlums and savage criminals on our streets. — Nbc Universal, NBC News, 16 Apr. 2023 The centerpiece of Laurence Graff’s display window, the stone was famous before the Chicago hoodlums committed what seemed a perfect crime. — Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune, 12 Mar. 2023 We were considered hoodlums and thugs. — Gary Washburn, BostonGlobe.com, 11 Mar. 2023 Also tempting death-by-drug-bear: a pair of kids cutting school and a concerned mother in pursuit, a park ranger and a Smokey Bear-loving wildlife man, and a gang of colorfully dressed hoodlums who patrol the woods stabbing people for loot. — WIRED, 24 Feb. 2023 Based on Ken Kesey’s novel, the film stars Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy, a hoodlum who feigns mental illness to avoid a prison sentence, arriving at mental institution run b...

As violence flared up in pockets of Baltimore on Monday, the city’s mayor had some strong words for those participating in the riots. “Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who in a very senseless way are trying to tear down what so many have fought for,” Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told reporters. “Thuggee” stories soon became the subject of popular rumor, epitomized by 1839’s “ Rader largely credits that book with popularizing the idea that a “thug” was “any brutal ruffian,” detaching the word from its original, specific context. And that context was itself “largely a product of British imagination,” Rader notes. “The unionization of American labor seemed to be a haven for “thug” use, where the word was used almost entirely of violent agitators, for goons hired to break unionizers and unionizers themselves,” Stamper wrote.”This isn’t that surprising: It was the age of sensationalism in journalism, and ‘thug,’ with its criminal overtones, was a great smear for both sides.” “From that point on, ‘tough’ and ‘thug’ were the favored smears used for anyone who disrupted union meetings or a workday. Unionizers seem to have been branded with ‘thug’ more often than those hired to bust unions were. That trend changed as unionization became more common: by the teens, ‘thug’ was used as often of people hired by employers to break strikes or target union leaders as it was of union sympathizers. As union struggles died down, so...

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: A certain five-letter word has been used repeatedly over the last few days. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE: ...The thugs who only want to incite violence... (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) GOVERNOR LARRY HOGAN: ...Our city of Baltimore to be taken over by thugs... (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: ...And thugs who tore up the place. BLOCK: Thugs, the word chosen by President Obama, Maryland's governor, Baltimore's mayor and others to describe those who looted and burned stores in Baltimore and in some cases that were later retracted with an apology. So why is thug so charged? John McWhorter has been thinking about this. He teaches linguistics at Columbia University and often writes about language and race. Welcome back to the program. JOHN MCWHORTER: Thank you, Melissa. BLOCK: John, I've been looking at the Merriam-Webster definition of thug, and it describes it as a brutal ruffian or assassin. What's the origin of this word? MCWHORTER: Well, the word originates in India as a word for roughly that. And because the British ran India for a good long time, the word jumped the rails from Indian languages to English, and that's the reason that we in America have used the word for a very long time. And until rather recently, it did mean what you might call a ruffian, but of course, things have changed. BLOCK: Well, how have they changed? MCWHORTER: Well, the truth is that thug today is a nominally p...

From the lyrics of hip-hop to the teachings of the Black Panthers, language in The Hate U Give is a tool for education, justice, and speaking truth to power. Starr is initially hesitant to speak out about what she witnessed, fearing retaliation against her family and worrying that she is not worthy of speaking up for Khalil. Throughout the novel, however, she comes to understand her voice as the most powerful tool she possesses. Kenya calls Starr a coward for “staying quiet,” reiterating that the best thing Starr can do for Khalil is speak on his behalf. Similarly, activist April Ofrah repeatedly tells Starr that her voice is her strongest “weapon” in the fight for justice for Khalil. Towards the end of the novel, while standing atop a police car during the riots, Starr observes that her “bullhorn is as heavy as a gun. Ironic since Ms. Ofrah said to use my weapon.” The crowd shouts encouragement for her to “speak,” echoing the power that her voice has in that moment. Thomas further suggests that if language is a form of power, then silence is a means of control. When Maverick gives Starr “the talk,” he insists that she “only speak when” police ask her to, a point that feels especially pertinent to Starr given that her father “has the biggest mouth of anybody I know.” Thomas also repeatedly mentions the stigma associated with snitching on other members of the Garden Heights community. Ratting someone out is considered the ultimate betrayal, a fact that King—the biggest drug...

After the funeral of Freddie Gray ignited protests in the streets of Baltimore, several elected officials used a word to describe those people who were setting fire to buildings, stealing from stores and smashing car windows and taillights: "thugs." Though many activists engaged in peaceful protests, looting and rioting During a press conference Monday, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who is white, Right away, the word choice angered many people in the black community. Musician Questlove of the Roots thug to a racial slur, as did Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes "Thugs" = Niggers Etymology experts thug to the Hindi word meaning a cheat or a swindler. Colonial accounts speak of groups of Thugs who practiced Thuggee and would rob and kill travelers. Some accounts describe these Thugs as belonging to a religious cult that worshipped the goddess of death and destruction and killed in order to please her. Such accounts made their way into Western culture during British colonization and through anthropological writings such as Edward Thornton's Illustrations of the History and Practices of the Thugs (1837). An article in The New York Times from 1852 Later that century, Mark Twain wrote about the Indian Thugs in his 1897 travelogue Following the Equator. And nearly 100 years later, 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom portrayed the Thugs as villains from the Orient who engaged in human sacrifice. The word “thug” originates from ...