different between hoodlum vs lout

English

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".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?hu?dl?m/, /?h?dl?m/
• Hyphenation: hood?lum

Noun

hoodlum (plural hoodlums)

1. A gangster; a hired thug.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:criminal
2. A rough or violent youth.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:troublemaker

Usage notes

• A short form, "hood," also exists.
• A nonstandard, jocular plural hoodla (treating the word like a Latin noun) also exists.
• The behavior of a hoodlum may be referred to as "hoodlumism."

Translations

References

Further reading

• “Frederick Bee History Project”, in (Please provide the title of the work)?^[2], accessed October 4, 2014

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /la?t/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /l??t/
• Rhymes: -a?t

Etymology 1

Of dialectal origin, likely from Middle English louten (“to bow, bend low, stoop over”) from Old English lutian from Proto-Germanic *lut?n?. Cognate with Old Norse lútr (“stooping”), Gothic ???????????????????? (lut?n, “to deceive”). Non-Germanic cognates are probably Old Church Slavonic ??????? (luditi, “to deceive”), Serbo-Croatian lud and Albanian lut (“to beg, pray”).

Noun

lout (plural louts)

1. A troublemaker, often violent; a rude violent person; a yob.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:troublemaker

2. A clownish, awkward fellow; a bumpkin.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:bumpkin

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

lout (third-person singular simple present louts, present participle louting, simple past and past participle louted)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To treat as a lout or fool; to neglect; to disappoint.

Etymology 2

From Middle English louten, from Old English l?tan, from Proto-Germanic *l?tan?. Cognate with Old Norse lúta, Danish lude (“to bend”), Norwegian lute (“stoop”), Swedish luta.

Verb

lout (third-person singular simple present louts, present participle louting, simple past and past participle louted)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To bend, bow, stoop.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.i:

     He faire the knight saluted, louting low, / Who faire him quited, as that courteous was [...].

   • 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, vol. 1:

     He took the cup in his hand and, louting low, returned his best thanks [...].

References

Anagrams

• Toul, tolu, ulto