About
A phonosemantic compound, 氓 combines 亡 (to flee, disappear) on top, a component that also hints at displacement, and 民 (people, commoners) below, which provides the core meaning; 亡 simultaneously supplies the sound. In its earliest usage, the character served as a neutral term for displaced populations, commoners, often agrarian workers, who had fled their hometowns or states to seek refuge elsewhere, essentially immigrants or vagrants. Over the centuries, however, the term's meaning shifted dramatically: it lost its original neutral demographic sense and became strongly pejorative; today, it appears almost exclusively in the compound 流氓, meaning a hooligan or ruffian.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
警察抓住了流氓。
那个流氓在街上闹事。
流氓的行为令人厌恶。
我们必须打击流氓活动。
他年轻时曾是个流氓。
社会不容许流氓势力蔓延。
尽管他曾是流氓，但现在改过自新了。
法律对流氓罪有明确的定义和处罚。
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