thug

 
Pronunciation: /θʌg/

noun

  • 1a violent person, especially a criminal: he was attacked by a gang of thugs
  • 2 (Thug) historical a member of an organization of robbers and assassins in India. Devotees of the goddess Kali, the Thugs waylaid and strangled their victims, usually travellers, in a ritually prescribed manner. They were suppressed by the British in the 1830s.

Derivatives

thuggery

noun

thuggish

adjective

thuggishly

adverb

thuggishness

noun

thuggism

noun

Origin:

early 19th century (in thug (sense 2)): from Hindi ṭhag 'swindler, thief', based on Sanskrit sthagati 'he covers or conceals'. thug (sense 1) arose in the mid 19th century