English

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Etymology

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Blend of thug +‎ gangsta.

Noun

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thugsta (plural thugstas)

  1. (African-American Vernacular, slang) Someone who is both a thug and a gangsta.
    • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, unnumbered page:
      This here ain't no romance / It's an urban erotic tale / Hood life, gats, stacked papers / Set a thugsta up to fail
    • 2013, Jonathan C. Friedman, editor, The Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music, New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, →ISBN, pages 177–178:
      In an industry dominated by men and images of "thugsta" rappers in the late 1990s and early 2000s with gold grills, tattoos, platinum chains, and dark clothing, bubblegum-chewing [Missy] Elliott popularized a hip-hop wardrobe for urban women that included contemporaneously fashionable unisex athletic gear and oversize clothing in soft, "girlie" colors, as well as de rigueur enormous monogrammed hoop earrings and perfectly manicured fingernails.

Further reading

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