assassin

as·sas·sin  (-ssn)

n.

1. One who murders by surprise attack, especially one who carries out a plot to kill a prominent person.

2. Assassin A member of a secret order of Muslims who terrorized and killed Christian Crusaders and others.

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[French, from Medieval Latin assassnus, from Arabic an, pl. of a, hashish user, from a, hashish; see hashish.]

Word History: Active in Persia and Syria from the 8th to 14th centuries, the original Assassins were members of the Nizaris, a Muslim group who opposed the Abbasid caliphate with threats of sudden assassination by their secret agents. Other populations of the area regarded the Nizaris as unorthodox outcasts, and from this attitude came one of the names for the group, an, a word originally meaning "hashish users," which had become a general term of abuse. Reliable sources offer no evidence of hashish use by Nizari agents, but sensationalistic stories of murderous, drug-crazed an or Assassins were widely repeated in Europe. Marco Polo tells a tale of how young Assassins were given a potion and made to yearn for paradisetheir reward for dying in actionby being given a life of pleasure. As the legends spread, the word an passed through French or Italian and appeared in English as assassin in the 16th century, already with meanings like "treacherous killer."

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assassin

Noun

a murderer of a prominent person [Arabic hashshāshīn, plural of hashshāsh one who eats hashish]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	assassin - a murderer (especially one who kills a prominent political figure) who kills by a surprise attack and often is hired to do the deed; "his assassins were hunted down like animals"; "assassinators of kings and emperors" assassinator, bravo political science, politics, government - the study of government of states and other political units liquidator, manslayer, murderer - a criminal who commits homicide (who performs the unlawful premeditated killing of another human being)
	2.	assassin - a member of a secret order of Muslims (founded in the 12th century) who terrorized and killed Christian Crusaders Moslem, Muslim - a believer in or follower of Islam

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assassin

noun murderer, killer, slayer, liquidator, executioner, hit man (slang) eliminator (slang) hatchet man (slang)

Translations

assassin [əˈsæsɪn] n → asesino/a

assassin [əˈsæsɪn] n → assassin m

assassin [əˈsæsɪn] n → Attentäter(in) m(f)

assassin [əˈsæsɪn] n → assassino