Meaning of the word "mob"
 

In Australia the word mob refers to a group of people and does not have many negative connotations. In fact indigineous Australians often use the word to mean their family, extended family or tribe in the best sense.

I want to know, in other parts of the world, especially in the US, is the meaning of the word mob mainly negative eg referring to a gang or family involved in organised crime?

Any help would be appreciated.

Jeff

Re: Meaning of the word "mob"
 

Yeah, in most cases.

When I say "there's a mob downtown that is having a party", that means that there is a group of some bad people planning some sort of drug shipment or a meeting where you do a lot of drugs. When we want to speak of an extended group, we usually use (in suburban areas as far as I know) the word 'gang', meaning a group of people, not necessariy positive or negative. I know of a few parents who use the term 'peanut gallery' for a meeting of children. I never did find out why, but, yeah, the USA is really weird.

I remember a foreign exchange student getting really confused. He had learnt english in his native country, but then he comes to the US and is horrified when he hears that a group of friends are going to 'hang out'.

It has two meanings:

1. a group of people in a crowd - "I was mobbed by shoppers at the sale today!" or "There was a mob (or you can say mob of people) downtown picketing in front of the business."

2. Organized crime - little gangs are penny ante as compared to mobs. Here's the definition:

I often think of the Mafia when I think of "mob" because the Mafia can also be referred to as "The Mob.

somebody has been watching a lot of 'The sopranos' lately eh liza?

I've never seen that actually. :-D

Jeff: Being right beside the US, our meaning of the word is basically the same as xbot and Lisa have commented on above.

I also think of a great mob of people if you are at an amusement park or some such event as well. I agree with Lisa, thinking the word mob in and of itself makes me think of the streets of Chicago or New York and the Mafia.

I have never seen The Sopranos either, but have seen enough Mafia movies to have that impression.

Lisa: I think the term "peanut gallery" is derrived from The Charlie Brown comic strips, "Peanuts" -- we often call a large group of children "Rugrats" as well, I am sure this has been encouraged from the cartoon of that name!!

:D Susan.

Hi Susan --
According to this site the idiom peanut gallery has been around much longer than "Peanuts." :) :D

Thanks for the link Chipper... I still think of Charlie Brown and the gang when I think of the term though.. hehehe!

:D Susan.

I've read somewhere that "rugrats" for children (also "ankle biters", although that one would be more apt if applied to kittens) is an Australianism. :) It certainly predates the cartoon...

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=mob :)

Heh, in my context the word mob means a Flashmob... in Dutch the word isn't really used, but I took part in a few flashmobs, which has been verbized into 'mobben' ('to mob') around here.

--K

A mob that flashes.... coool :D

I hope you don't mean "flash" in the individual-person sense, as that would be in danger of breaching Forum rules! :D

Heh, nice one Robert :) No, we don't do such things, our mobs are very wellbehaving in general, and the community kind-of upholds it's own standards (no breaking laws, no breaking property, no indecency.. it's more of an unwritten law, but everyone sticks to it so far)

--K

:D