droog means A violent young gang member or a hooligan. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
droog is pronounced /druːɡ/.
Why “droog” is a great word
A violent young gang member or hooligan operating within a stylized criminal subculture. From Russian друг (drug, "friend"), used with this specific sense in the invented slang Nadsat by Anthony Burgess in his 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange. Unlike "friend," which implies a genuine bond of affection, or "thug," a blunt, general term for a brute, a droog is a comrade in ritualized ultraviolence, a figure of both loyalty and casual betrayal within a coded world. It is the synchronized swagger of boots on wet pavement, the shared glass of moloko plus at the Korova Bar, the cold-eyed accomplice in a symphony of random beating—a word that hollows out camaraderie and leaves only the grinning shell of pack violence.
Etymology
From Russian друг (drug, “friend”), in which sense it is used in the invented slang Nadsat in Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange (1962).
noun
- A violent young gang member or a hooligan.