hoodlum
/ˈhuːdləm/ noun
Forms hoodlums
Synonyms
criminal crook committer culprit delinquent desperado double-dealer felon lawbreaker lowlife malefactor malfeasant offender outlaw perpetrator public enemy scofflaw undesirable agitator bad boy hood goon punk thug tough toughie strong-armer
Etymology
First attested in a December 1866 Daily Alta California article, which mentions "the 'Hoodlum Gang' of juvenile thieves". Several possible origins have been proposed. It may derive from a Germanic word like Swabian hudelum (“disorderly”) or Bavarian Haderlump (“ragamuffin”).
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".
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hoodlum”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details