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What is the history of the word gangster?
Gangster came into the English language at the latter portion of the 19th century, as one of what is now a large parcel of words which have been formed by adding the noun combining form –ster to an existing word. The ending -ster has a number of possible meanings (“one that does, handles, or operates,” “one that makes or uses,” “one that is associated with or participates in,” “one that is”), and one of its interesting elements is that it has, in many cases, shifted its gender. This second portion of gangster comes from the Old English -estre, meaning “female agent.” The word tapster ("a bartender"), for instance, was tæppestre in Old English, and designated a barmaid, or female tapster. In modern use the addition of -ster may often be found in a gender-neutral sense, as with hipster, or with implications of masculinity, as with gangster and mobster, through prevalence of usage.
Examples of gangster in a Sentence
Beth Luberecki, USA Today, 11 Oct. 2025
Mint follows Shannon, the naïve daughter of the area’s dominant crime family, desperately searching for love in the shadow of her gangster father, Dylan (Sam Riley).
—Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 8 Oct. 2025
Rather than resting on her laurels after all of the awards and acclaim, the actor went bolder, taking center stage in Lars von Trier’s arthouse shocker tracking a troubled woman hiding out from her volatile gangster father in a rural Colorado community that eventually turns against her.
—Radhika Seth, Vogue, 8 Oct. 2025
The disconnect between Bishnoi the gangster and Bishnoi the child is starkest in his home village, where residents struggle to reconcile the two.
—Rhea Mogul, CNN Money, 7 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gangster
Cite this Entry
“Gangster.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gangster. Accessed 13 Oct. 2025.
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