máng / méng
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (in 流氓) hoodlum; rogue; hooligan

Examples

Bié shuǎ liúmáng, búyào sāorǎo biérén.
Don't be such a rogue and stop bothering people.
Jǐngchá zhuā le yì huǒ liúmáng.
The police arrested a gang of hooligans.

Tips

usage
In this reading is bound to 流氓 (流氓), which means both 'hooligan/rogue' and the behavior of harassing or molesting someone (流氓 = 'to act indecently'). It is a common, fairly strong everyday insult.

Components

semantic
wáng
to flee; to lose
means 'to flee / be lost'. Combined with (, the people), the original picture is displaced wanderers — rootless people, which later colored the 'rogue/drifter' sense.
phonetic
mín
the people; phonetic
supplies the sound (mín shifting to máng) and adds meaning: the word originally referred to people, here uprooted ones.

Stroke Order

máng