What is the origin of the word 'thug'?

Answer 1

1810: from Marathi thag, thak "cheat, swindler', Hindi thag 'swindler, thief,' based on Sanskrit sthaga-s'cunning, fraudulent', sthagati 'he covers or conceals.'

Hindi, after the former Indian cult of Thuggee.

i

before that...

The word "Thug-Life" came from the word thuggie. The British colonized India and it was a group within India who resisted the british and they were known as the "thuggies"... the British used the word thugs to refer to any group of outlaws defying oppression. Xince Tupac was confronted by exploitation and oppression, he accepted the principle and evolved his meaning of it amongst the same lines.

Matulu Shakur, Dare to Struggle

Answer 2

A "thug" is a word to describe someone, often a male, who is involved in criminal activity like violence, gangs or drugs. The origin of the word is thought to be from the Hindi word ṭhag

Answer 3

From 1810, "member of a gang of murderers and robbers in India who strangled their victims," from Marathi thag, thak"cheat, swindler," Hindi thag, "deceiver" perhaps from Sanskrit. sthaga-s "cunning, fraudulent," possibly from sthagayati "(he) covers, conceals," from PreIndoEuropean base *(s)teg- "cover". Transferred sense of "ruffian, cutthroat" first recorded 1839. The more correct Indian name is phanseegur, and the activity was described in England as far back as c.1665. Rigorously prosecuted by the British from 1831, they were driven from existence, but the process extended over the rest of the 19th Century.