badmash
English
Alternative forms
- badmaash, budmash
Etymology
Borrowed from Urdu بدمعاش (badmāš), Hindi बदमाश (badmāś), and its source, Persian بدمعاش (badma'âš), from بد (bad, “bad, evil”) + معاش (ma'âš, “life, livelihood”), ultimately from Arabic عَاشَ (ʿāša, “to live”). Compare lowlife, which is a similar formation in English.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /bʌdˈmɑːʃ/
- Rhymes: -ɑːʃ
Noun
badmash (plural badmashes)
- (British India, South Asia) A rogue, ruffian or miscreant. [from 19th c.]
- 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin 2005, p. 102:
- ‘However big a badmash one is – if one's happy in consequence, that's some justification.’
- 2013, Garry Douglas Kilworth, Rogue Officer:
- Once the five had left for the village, the Dutchman had immediately begun working on the badmash who had stood up to the havildar.
- 2014, Dr. Ulhas R. Gunjal, Home, Again!: A Novel of Identity, Self-Discovery, and Tragedy:
- His wife laughed. “You'll see purdahs when we reach Port Said.” “And a bazaar?” “That's a market!” “Who's a badmash?” “A bad man is called a badmash. I'm not a badmash. Am I?”
- 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin 2005, p. 102:
Anagrams
- madhabs