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assassin - 5 dictionary results

as⋅sas⋅sin

  [uh-sas-in]
Use assassin in a Sentence
–noun
1. a murderer, esp. one who kills a politically prominent person for fanatical or monetary reasons.
2. (initial capital letter) one of an order of Muslim fanatics, active in Persia and Syria from about 1090 to 1272, whose chief object was to assassinate Crusaders.
Origin:
1525–35; < ML assassinī (pl.) < Ar ḥashshāshīn eaters of hashish
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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as·sas·sin   (ə-sās'ĭn)   
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.

[French, from Medieval Latin assassīnus, from Arabic ḥaššāšīn, pl. of ḥaššāš, hashish user, from ḥašīš, 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, ḥaššāšīn, 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 ḥaššāšīn 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 paradise—their reward for dying in action—by being given a life of pleasure. As the legends spread, the word ḥaššāšīn passed through French or Italian and appeared in English as assassin in the 16th century, already with meanings like "treacherous killer."
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Assassin

As*sas"sin\, n. [F. (cf. It. assassino), fr. Ar. `hashishin one who has drunk of the hashish. Under its influence the Assassins of the East, followers of the Shaikh al-Jabal (Old Man of the Mountain), were said to commit the murders required by their chief.] One who kills, or attempts to kill, by surprise or secret assault; one who treacherously murders any one unprepared for defense.

Assassin

As*sas"sin\, v. t. To assassinate. [Obs.] --Stillingfleet.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : assassin
Spanish: asesino,
German: der, *die Attentäter, *in,
Japanese: 暗殺者
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assassin 
1531 (in Anglo-L. from c.1237), via Fr. and It., from Arabic hashishiyyin "hashish-users," pl. of hashishiyy, from hashish (q.v.). A fanatical Ismaili Muslim sect of the time of the Crusades, under leadership of the "Old Man of the Mountains" (translates Arabic shaik-al-jibal, name applied to Hasan ibu-al-Sabbah), with a reputation for murdering opposing leaders after intoxicating themselves by eating hashish. The pl. suffix -in was mistaken in Europe for part of the word (cf. Bedouin).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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