HOOLIGAN
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 12:57 pm
The Communists have always had a way with words. In China and in the former Communist/Soviet bloc nations, one of the favorite charges used to arrest protestors seems to be "malicious hooliganism." They are not, it seems, Happy Hooligans.
From the Online Etymology Dictionary:The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
hooligan
SYLLABICATION: hoo·li·gan
PRONUNCIATION: h'lĭ-gn
NOUN: A tough and aggressive or violent youth.
ETYMOLOGY: Origin unknown.
OTHER FORMS: hooli·gan·ism —NOUN
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
(Edited to add etymology)hooligan
1890s, of unknown origin, first found in British newspaper police-court reports in the summer of 1898, almost certainly from the surname Houlihan, supposedly from a lively family of that name in London (who figured in music hall songs of the decade). Internationalized 20c. in communist rhetoric as Rus. khuligan, opprobrium for "scofflaws, political dissenters, etc."