Etymology

gangster

gang·ster
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Today it means: A member of a criminal or street gang. Full definition →

English gang ← Middle English gang ← Old English gang
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰengʰ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰóngʰos
  3. Proto-Germanic*gangaz
  4. Proto-West Germanic*gang
  5. Old Englishgang
  6. Middle Englishgang
  7. Englishgang
  8. English todaygangster

From gang + -ster. First attested in 1884.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.