noun
- a murderer, especially one who kills a politically prominent person for fanatical or monetary reasons.
- (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.
noun
- a murderer, esp one who kills a prominent political figure
noun
- a member of a secret sect of Muslim fanatics operating in Persia and Syria from about 1090 to 1256, murdering their victims, usually Crusaders
1530s (in Anglo-Latin from mid-13c.), via French and Italian, from Arabic hashishiyyin “hashish-users,” plural 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 plural suffix -in was mistaken in Europe for part of the word (cf. Bedouin).