hooligan

• IPA^(key): /ˈhuː.lɪ.ɡən/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hoo‧li‧gan

Almost certainly from the Irish surname Houlihan, 1890s.

hooligan (plural hooligans)

1. (informal, derogatory) A person who causes trouble or violence.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:troublemaker

   • 2012, Tie Ning, The Bathing Women: A Novel:

     She also heard boys from other classes behind her talking: “So, Teacher Tang is a female hooligan.”

   • 2013, Ken Sears, The Boy From Treacle Bumstead, →ISBN:

     And I was in danger of turning into a right little hooligan if left to my wayward ways.

   • 2014, Cynthia Kadohata, Half a World Away, →ISBN:

     “You are hooligan, you try to make trouble.” Sam paused, then continued. “Ah ha ha ha, I am right, I see it in your eyes. A hooligan!”

2. Ellipsis of football hooligan.
   • 2013, Mark Perryman, Hooligan Wars: Causes and Effects of Football Violence, →ISBN:

     These excursions abroad confirm that displacement has actually been a feature of the development of hooligan conflicts for some time, but an important wider point is that domestic hooligan displacement also seems to be a much more central issue today, as policing and other control strategies (segregation, seating, stewarding and CCTV in and around the larger English football grounds) have become more comprehensive, and especially as sentences for hooliganism have become much more forbidding.

3. (Navy slang, derogatory) A member of the coast guard.
   • 1944, Lawrance Roger Thompson, The Navy Hunts the CGR 3070, page 7:

     Many professional Navy and Coast Guard men were inclined to scoff. What kind of Navy was this, and what did they think they were up to, anyway? This bunch of hooligans wouldn't be any good to anyone; wouldn't be worth the powder to blow 'em to hell. Hooligan's Navy.

   • 1957, Weldon Hill, Onionhead, page 251:

     It often seemed to Al that the entire Coast Guard was a little embarrassed about being Coast Guardsmen—except maybe the cocky bearded men off the convoy cutters, who needed to apologize to no man because of any lack of battle stars. But in general, Army and Navy guys looked down on Hooligans.

   • 1970, Naval Engineers Journal - Volume 82, page 45:

     I frequently notice that the hooligans (a respectful reference to the U.S. Coast Guard) are a hard act to follow.

   • 2013, Elizabeth Smith Doerning, Frank A. Smith, Jr., The Travels of a Happy Hooligan, →ISBN:

     Navy crew along the rail shouted smart-ass remarks and jeered at the hooligan doing his job.

• hool, hoolie
• hooligan firm

• hooliganism

• → Finnish: huligaani
• → French: hooligan
• → German: Hooligan
• → Greek: χούλιγκαν (choúligkan)
• → Hebrew: חוליגן
• → Polish: chuligan
• → Portuguese: hooligan, holígane
• → Romanian: huligan
• → Russian: хулига́н (xuligán) (see there for further descendants)
• → Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic script: ху̏лига̄н

  Latin script: hȕligān

• → Swedish: huligan
• → Ukrainian: хуліга́н (xulihán)

• lout
• thug
• yob, yobbo

Borrowed from Chinook Jargon ulakan, from Clatsop Chinook, with spelling and pronunciation influenced by the preceding.

hooligan (plural hooligans)

1. A type of fish, an anadromous smelt, Thaleichthys pacificus, found in the North Pacific.

   Synonyms: eulachon, candlefish

   • 1994, Martha F. Betts, The Subsistence Hooligan Fishery of the Chilkat and Chilkoot Rivers, page 59:

     Haines and Klukwan hooligan harvesters reported that they exchanged hooligan products primarily for other food items, especially those unavailable in the Chilkat and Chilkoot area or those which were inaccessible to the harvester for various reasons. Respondents reported that virtually any wild food might be obtained for hooligan oil.

   • 1995, U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration & State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Whittier Access Project, Seward Highway to Port of Whittier, Alaska: Draft Environmental Impact Statement, page 4-8:

     Low-gradient, clear water streams on the western side of Portage Pass provide spawning and rearing habitat for red salmon, silver salmon, pink salmon, chum salmon, hooligan (smelt), and Dolly Varden (U.S. Bureau of Land Management 1977b).

   • 2004, Kenai Peninsula Tour Guidebook, →ISBN, page 4:

     Hooligan (smelt) are often spotted from the point as they come in with the tide.

• halooing

Borrowed from English hooligan.

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hoo‧li‧gan

hooligan m (plural hooligans, diminutive hooligannetje n)

1. (derogatory) hooligan

• ^{(aspirated h)}IPA^(key): /u.li.ɡɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

hooligan m (plural hooligans)

1. hooligan

• holígane

Unadapted borrowing from English hooligan.

hooligan m or f by sense (plural hooligans)

1. a sports hooligan

Unadapted borrowing from English hooligan.

• IPA^(key): /ˈxuliɡan/ [ˈxu.li.ɣ̞ãn]
• Rhymes: -uliɡan

hooligan m or f by sense (plural hoolíganes)

1. hooligan

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “hooligan”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10