thug

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a violent criminal or a person hired to intimidate or attack others

   The party boss sent a thug to threaten the newspaper's editor.

2. 2
   noun

   historical: a member of bands in India described in British colonial records as robbing and killing travellers, associated with Thuggee

   The historian cautioned that each colonial account of a Thug must be read in the context of imperial policing.

Borrowed in the early nineteenth century from Hindi and Urdu thag, 'swindler or thief,' ultimately related to Sanskrit sthagati, 'he conceals.' British colonial usage applied Thug to alleged members of Thuggee bands; the word soon broadened in English to any violent criminal or hired enforcer.

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