hoodlum

English

Etymology

First attested in a December 1866[1] Daily Alta California article, which mentions "the 'Hoodlum Gang' of juvenile thieves".[2] Several possible origins have been proposed. It may derive from a Germanic word like Swabian hudelum (“disorderly”)[1][3] or Bavarian Haderlump (“ragamuffin”).[4]

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^(key): /ˈhuːdləm/, /ˈhʊdləm/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Hyphenation: hood‧lum

Noun

hoodlum (plural hoodlums)

A gangster; a hired thug.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:criminal
- 2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC‎:
  In Sam Mendes's excellent gangster movie Road to Perdition (2002), he tested the boundaries further playing a hitman – but while we know he's a killer, we never really see him go full-pelt hoodlum.
A rough or violent youth.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:troublemaker

Usage notes

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

Translations

a gangster; a hired thug

Afrikaans: rampokker (af)
Bulgarian: га́нгстер (bg) m (gángster)
Finnish: gangsteri (fi)
French: bandit (fr) m
German: Schläger (de) m, Ganove (de) m, Gangster (de) m, Bandit (de) m
Khmer: យូកូង (yuu koung)
Latin: grassātor m
Macedonian: банди́т m (bandít), банди́тка f (bandítka)
Polish: gangster (pl) m, bandyta (pl) m
Portuguese: jagunço (pt) m
Russian: банди́т (ru) m (bandít), банди́тка (ru) f (bandítka)
Sotho: tsotsi
Spanish: matón m, bandido (es) m, pandillero (es) m

a rough or violent youth

Bulgarian: хулига́н (bg) m (huligán)
Cebuano: bugoy
Chinese:
Mandarin: 阿飛／阿飞 (zh) (āfēi), 流氓 (zh) (liúmáng), 歹徒 (zh) (dǎitú)
Finnish: hulttio (fi)
French: voyou (fr) m
German: Ganove (de) m, Halbstarker (de) m, Rowdy (de) m, Schlägertyp m
Hindi: गुंडा (hi) m (guṇḍā)
Japanese: チンピラ (chinpira), 与太者 (よたもの, yotamono)
Latin: grassātor m
Macedonian: хулига́н m (huligán)
Occitan: malfaràs m, gusàs m, sacamand (oc) m
Portuguese: marginal (pt) m or f
Russian: хулига́н (ru) m (xuligán), го́пник (ru) m (gópnik), буя́н (ru) m (buján), шпана (ru) (špana)
Spanish: matón m

References

“hoodlum”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Daily Alta California, December 15, 1866: "a dealerf in second-hand clothing [...] was arrested, yesterday [...] on the charges of receiving stolen goods from the "Hoodlum Gang" of juvenile thieves"
“hoodlum”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “hoodlum”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.