Quote:
Originally posted by JeffK
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
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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'.