Etymology

preman

P3R1E1M3A1N1

Today it means: A member of an organized criminal gang in Indonesia. Full definition →

Indonesian preman ← Dutch vrijman
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The story

  1. Dutch · derived fromvrijman“freeman”
  2. Indonesian · borrowed frompreman
  3. English todaypreman

From Indonesian preman, from Dutch vrijman (“freeman”). Doublet of freeman.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.