Filed under: History, Stories, North America, United States
How many miscreants does it take to coin a new word? Apparently, many. Dig, if you will, the picture: Gamblers, saloon keepers, thieves, pickpockets, conmen, murderers, pimps and prostitutes, shyster politicians and lawyers. These were the people who made up the Barbary Coast in San Francisco, people who didn't mine for gold, but who set up shop to strip the newly rich or the desperate-to-be-rich of their money. And because many of the people who rushed into California for gold were not used to having money, it was easy to get them to part with it.
Which is how the Barbary Coast gave birth to another word: hoodlum. Scholars have said the word comes an old German word "huddellump" which means "ruffian." Others say it evolved from the dictum "huddle 'em," a call for gangs to attack Chinese immigrants. It could have even been the name of a particular gang, as the local newspaper "Golden Era" reported on February 16, 1868: "The police have recently been investigating the proceedings of a gang of thieving boys who denominate themselves and are known to the world as the Hoodlum Gang."
In fact, the word was always used as a proper noun (that is, with a capital H), thus referring to a gang of young thugs and brawlers. The first time is appeared with a lower case h, though, was in a Sacramento newspaper. Five years after that, "hoodlum" was in use all over the United States.The Hoodlums of San Francisco originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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