thuggery

　Even the financier and philanthropist George Soros is now a pawn in this tawdry saga ...
　The most pressing question is the least obvious: why are they descending into paranoid thuggery? Supporters of Brexit ought to be happy. Britain is leaving in March 2019. 　Theresa May says so. Jeremy Corbyn, the supposed leader of the opposition, isn’t opposing her. All the right has to do is keep its head down and wait for the chance to do as it pleases. Instead, it is being convulsed by neuroticism. So determined is it to destabilise the May government, Brexit could collapse under the stress. (Skip the rest)

https://www.google.co.jp/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/10/brexiters-now-march-with-toxic-conspirators-of-orbans-hungary

　今回取り上げる語は、thuggery / θˈʌg(ə)ri / です。
　まず意味を確認します。LDOCEをみると、 “violent behaviour in which people fight and attack others” とあり、Cambridge Dictionaryには “violent behaviour that is criminal or antisocial (= harmful to society)” と定義されていました。
　次に語源を確認します。ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY をみると、“1839, from thug + -ery. Also thugee, from the native Hindi name for the system of religious assassination practiced by the thugs.” とありました。(OkaUchi)