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a.

Comes from the Arabic word – “Hashishin” which means “hashish eaters”

b.

During the Crusades, there was a group of mercenaries called the Nizari who would murder leaders.

c.

It was believed that the Old Man of the Mountain would drug young men who would then wake up in a beautiful garden and were made to believe that they were in heaven.

d.

They were then sent out to kill leaders and generals and told that if they died, they would return back to “heaven”

Hi, everyone. And welcome back to one of your favorite segments【词源考古研究所】It Means What.

Aya~

What is going on. Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu, hi everyone.

So you know that in this segment, 安澜and I, we explore the fascinating background and history of words and phrases.

Yes.

So which word or phrase are we talking about today, 安澜?

A few days ago I was playing Assassin’s Creed.

You play games?

Sometimes yes. when you're not giving me loads and loads of work to do, sometimes I do actually relax.

Okay. I don't know. I thought you are too bookish to do that. Anyhow. Assassin’s Creed肯定有很多小伙伴也听过叫《刺客信条》. It's also a very popular video game in English speaking world.

It's incredibly popular.

So I thought we could talk about where the word assassin comes from.

刺客对吧? 就暗杀者 Assassin. Let me guess this really does not sound like originally like an English word because it's got too many asses.

It’s actually from Arabic.

And it comes from the Arabic word Hashishin which means Hashish eaters.

Hang on, Hashish? Isn’t Hashishi like marijuana?

好像是大ma的意思是么?

There's quite a few words for that in English and one of the oldest is Hashish.

Hashish eaters?

Yes.

So assassins were the ones that are getting high?

That is the story.

Okay. Tell us about the story I can't wait to hear.

During the crusades.

Crusades就是圣战, 十字军东征那个...

There were a group of mercenary is called the Nizari.

Mercenaries are soldiers for hire.

Yes.

Mercenaries 雇佣军.

You can describe people as being mercenary that means they only do things for money.

They're not do... fighting for a political cause. No.

So the Nazari would actually go out and murder leaders, generals.

from the crusaders.

Now they were famed for being incredibly brave, brave to the point of being reckless or they seem they didn't care about their lives.

So it was believed that the leader who was called the Old Man of The Mountain would drug young men with Hashish, he would drug these men and when they woke up, they woke up in his castle.

Can we actually talk about this because this sounds like a really weird tale. So this old guy drugs young guys and bring them back to his castle.

And when they woke up, in the center of the castle was a beautiful garden filled with food, drink, beautiful women, and he used to tell these young men that they were in heaven, okay! They would spend time in heaven and then they were sent out to kill leaders and generals and told that if they died, they would return back to “heaven”.

I understand the concept, so because these men were completely drugged out of their scull, 这些已经被下了药, 下了 Hashish.

他们已经是high了的状态. 然后把它们放在一个地方, 其实就是 castle里面做出来的一个景观and they thought it was heaven.

Yeah, and then they were... then released into the world and say if you do me proud, if you kill these crusade leaders and then you can come back to heaven, you go in heaven.

If you die, then you would also come back to heaven.

I see that's why they're not afraid of death, 所以他们才是敢死队一样的这种.

So this story actually come to Marco Polo. I don't think it's actually true, but I think it's a very, very, very good story. And this is where the word “assassin” comes from.

To be honest, you say it's not true or it's just a story. But I don't think it's that far away from some of the truth, historical truth because I mean some armies have been known to feed their or to drug their soldiers so that when they're drugged out, they really don't care about getting hurt or getting killed.

Exactly the German army during the World War II would take very, very strong drugs and when they invaded France, a lot of them didn't sleep for days.

Basically they were taking drugs in chocolate. They were eating this special kind of chocolate that was filled with amphetamines.

They were truly drugged out. American army, there were also scandals about it where American soldiers being drugged to fight, like tirelessly and fearlessly.

Exactly. So in the early 20th century, I would say most armies experimented with drugs.

But back to this word assassin, in Chinese you know that we call it 刺客. This word, I've done a little bit of research, I think the earlier textual records of assassins in China was in...was it called The Records of The Grand Historian?

司马迁的《史记》 对吧? 那个里面有一个《刺客列传》, so we have like “刺” can be “pierce”, but it can also just be stab.

But in English when you say assassin or the verb assassinate, you have to be an important person to be assassinated, right? Someone kills you. It will just... you'll just be killed.

Exactly. That'll just be murder. The thing is in English, Assassination is usually for a political reason.

Ah, like a political leader.

Like a political leader. I don't think you could even say a singer was assassinated. It's usually an act that is linked with politics. So you're killing somebody for... political gain.

For political reasons. So for example, the famous assassinations in history,

Kennedy?

John F Kennedy, the American president who was assassinated, also the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

That's the one that kicks off...

The World War I. He was assassinated in Bosnia and that started the process which led to the World War I.

所以大家如果对世界历史还有印象的话, 这些比较有名的这种行刺的案件and more recently Abe.

Yeah, that's also assassination.

So a political figure is assassinated for political reasons.

So it's normally to make a political statement to make a political statement. So these people are called assassins, and the act is called assassination. Yes. Then someone is assassinated.

That's right.

All right. And I think on that note, we are gonna wrap up today's episode about a very peculiar word assassin. Yes, now if you have anything to share on the word, leave us comment in the comment section.

Although I do find that Old Man of The Mountain drugging young men and bringing them back to his castle is a bit dodgy.

And also leave us a comment if you have any other words or phrases you want us to talk about. Thank you,安澜for coming to the show.

Thanks, Lulu. Thanks everyone.

We'll see you next time.

Bye bye.