Antedating of "Hoodlum"

[Imran Ghory]

On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, Fred Shapiro wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Feb 2003 Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>
> >    An article in the BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, 12 August 1872, pg. 3, is
> > "HOODLUMS: Familiar Characters With New Names."  The article, taken from the
> > ALTA CALIFORNIAN, claims that that newspaper coined the term "a year and a
> > half ago."
>
> The OED's first use for "hoodlum" is dated Sept. 1871.  Here is a slightly
> earlier citation, via American Periodical Series:
>
> 1871 _Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine_ Aug. 163  If the young
> "Hoodlum" merely takes up his stand at the corner of the streets and there
> displays all the glories of his Turkish pantaloons and stub-toed boots, we
> hurry him off to prison, and punish him for his obedience to the law of
> Nature.


Slightly earlier still,

1871 _Daily Union_ (April 27):
Kelly and Dunn, San Francisco "Hoodlums," who were arrested at San Jose
at the Sarsfield guard picnic excursion on Sunday last, are doing duty in
the chain gang on the streets of that city; which, together with the fact
that a third "Hoodlum" got his throat cut by an Indian at the same place,
gives great satisfaction to our citizens.


Apparently there is an etymology of the word in American Notes and Queries
(pp. 39. Volume 8. November 1891).

Imran Ghory
--
http://bits.bris.ac.uk/imran