hooligan

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈhuː.lɪ.ɡən/^[1]

Etymology

Of uncertain origin.^[2][3][4] The word first appeared in British newspaper police-court reports in the summer of 1898.^[5][3] It is usually traced to the Irish surname Hooligan,^[3][4] which Etymonline takes to be almost certainly a variant of Houlihan, a stock comic Irish name in music-hall songs and newspapers of the 1880s and 1890s;^[5] Barnhart mentions a music-hall song of the 1890s about a rowdy family called Hooligan.^[3] Merriam-Webster suggests a Patrick Hooligan, an Irish hoodlum in Southwark around 1898,^[6] and Clarence Rook's book The Hooligan Nights (1899) credits a Patrick Hooligan with the name.^[5] The Old Bailey records a Patrick Hooligan, born 1862, convicted of theft in 1897, but Etymonline notes that he cannot be shown to be the same man.^[5] Random House points out that corroborating evidence is lacking.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young street rough or member of a street gang (1898).^[7][3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word quickly produced hooliganism and a verb, both in 1898.^[3][7] It was borrowed into Russian as khuligan, where it became a general term of abuse for lawbreakers, criminals and political dissenters.^[3] In US naval slang, Hooligan Navy named the Coast Guard.^[7][1]

Timeline

• 1898 – a young street rough; also hooliganism and the verb hooligan.^[7][3][5][6]
• 1899 – Clarence Rook's The Hooligan Nights.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A young ruffian or hoodlum, typically one of a gang.
2. A member of the United States Coast Guard.

Adjective

1. Of or like hooligans.

Word family

• hooliganism

References

1. [1] [2] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. [1] [2] [3] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. [1] [2] [3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press