What does hoodlum mean in slang?

What does hoodlum mean in slang?

a thug or gangster
Definition of hoodlum noun. a thug or gangster.

When was the term hoodlum first used?

December 14, 1866
Early use. The earliest reference to the word “hoodlum” was in the December 14, 1866, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin after the Hoodlum Band was arrested on December 13, 1866. Members of the gang were sentenced to the Industrial School for stealing clothes.

What is another term for hoodlum?

hooligan, thug, lout, delinquent, vandal, ruffian, rowdy. British tearaway. Australian, New Zealand larrikin. informal tough, rough, bruiser, roughneck.

What makes a hoodlum?

Hoodlum definition A wild, lawless person, often a member of a gang of criminals. A tough-looking young ruffian. A tough, often aggressive or violent youth. A gangster; a hired thug.

Where did the term hoodlum come from?

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 Swabia.

Is Hood short for hoodlum?

Answer: The word “hoodlum” originated in San Francisco around 1870. (It did not get shortened to “hood” until about 1930.) By about 1877, people were taking notice of “hoodlum” in other areas of the country, but by that time no one could remember exactly how it had come to be.

How did the term hoodlum originate?

The exact etymology of hoodlum is unknown, but references to “hoodlums” roaming the streets of San Francisco first surfaced in the media in 1871. An article in the Cincinnati Commercial that year made reference to a young man who moved to the city to “escape the bullying of the San Francisco ‘hoodlums.

What is the opposite of hoodlum?

Opposite of a rough and violent person. wimp. coward. weakling.

What is an antonym for hoodlum?

noun. ( ˈhʊdləm) An aggressive and violent young criminal. Antonyms. tender edible weak inexperienced delicate soft sensitive.

Is hoodlum a gangster?

Hoodlum is a 1997 American crime drama film that gives a fictionalized account of the gang war between the Italian/Jewish mafia alliance and the black gangsters of Harlem that took place in the late 1920s and early 1930s….Hoodlum (film)

Why are hoods called hoods?

The poor areas in the rural areas are known as a ghetto rather than a hood. By tradition, the word “hood” referred to the areas where the majority of the population was African American.

Does Hood come from hoodlum?

As the Boston Globe’s Jan Freeman wrote in 2004, “hood” comes from an Old English word for head covering while “hoodlum” derives from a German word meaning “ragamuffin.” She suggests, though, that because it relates semantically in the modern mind with a “hoodlum” or the “hood” (from neighborhood), use of the word ” …