词汇 | hooligan |
词源 | hooligan. A proper name is the origin for this word for a vio- lent roughneck, a fact conclusively established when British et- ymologist Eric Partridge brought to light Clarence Rook’s Hoo- ligan Nights (1899) in his Dictionary of Slang. Excerpts from Rook’s sociologically valuable work follow: “There was, but a few years ago a man called Patrick Hooligan, who walked to and fro among his fellow men, robbing them and occasionally bashing them . . . It is . . . certain that he lived in Irish Court, that he was employed as a chucker-out [bouncer] at various resorts in the neighborhood. Moreover, he could do more than his share of tea-leafing [stealing] . . . being handy with his fingers . . . Finally, one day he had a difference with a constable, put his light out . . . He was . . . given a lifer. But he had not been in gaol long before he had to go into hospital, where he died . . . The man must have had a forceful personality . . . a fascination, which elevated him into a type. It was doubtless the combination of skill and strength, a certain exuberance of lawlessness, an utter absence of scruple in his dealings, which marked him out as a leader among men . . . He left a great tradition . . . He established a cult.” This man called Hooligan made the Lamb and Flag pub in the Southwark section of Lon- don his headquarters, attracting a gang of followers around him. The entire rowdy Hooligan family, the nucleus of his gang—their real name was probably Houlihan—“enlivened the drab monotony of Southwark,” as another observer put it. The entry “Hooligan gang” is found on many police blotters in the late 1890s. Hooligan has also been used as a synonym for a prison guard, screw, or hack. |
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