thug

• n. 暴徒；恶棍；刺客

来自印度语 thag,小偷，骗子，引申词义罪犯，恶棍。

thug

thug: [19] Hindi thag means literally ‘robber, cheat’ (it is descended from Sanskrit sthaga ‘robber’, a derivative of sthagati ‘cover, hide’, which goes back ultimately to the Indo- European base *steg-, *teg- ‘cover’, source also of English deck, detect, integument, protect, thatch, etc). It came to be applied to members of a band of professional thieves and murderers in India, whose preferred method of dispatching their victims was strangulation (their other name was phansigar, literally ‘strangler’); and English took it over in the 1830s as a general term for a ‘brutally violent person’.
=> deck, detect, protect, thatch

thug (n.)

1810, "member of a gang of murderers and robbers in India who strangled their victims," from Marathi thag, thak "cheat, swindler," Hindi thag, perhaps from Sanskrit sthaga-s "cunning, fraudulent," from sthagayati "(he) covers, conceals," perhaps from PIE root *(s)teg- (2) "to cover" (see stegosaurus).

The thugs roamed about the country in bands of from 10 to 100, usually in the disguise of peddlers or pilgrims, gaining the confidence of other travelers, whom they strangled, when a favorable opportunity presented itself, with a handkerchief, an unwound turban, or a noosed cord. The shedding of blood was seldom resorted to. The motive of the thugs was not so much lust of plunder as a certain religious fanaticism. The bodies of their victims were hidden in graves dug with a consecrated pickax, and of their spoil one third was devoted to the goddess Kali, whom they worshiped. [Century Dictionary]

The more correct Indian name is phanseegur (from phansi "noose"), and the activity was described in English as far back as c. 1665. Rigorously prosecuted by the British from 1831, they were driven from existence by century's end. Transferred sense of "ruffian, cutthroat, violent lowbrow" is from 1839.

来自柯林斯例句

2. He edged away from the thug.

他悄悄地躲开了那个暴徒.

来自《简明英汉词典》

3. The thug grappled him around the neck.

那个歹徒抓住了他的脖子.

来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4. The thug gave him a punch in the chest.

暴徒对着他的胸部打了一拳.

来自辞典例句

5. So , what makes you any different from any other high school thug?

你和高中里的其它恶霸有什么区别?

来自电影对白