What is the origin of the word "assassin"?
by 
wickedwillie
ANSWERS: 4
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Meanwhile, back at your first question, the first "assassins" were Muslim fanatics who, at the time of the Crusades, pledged themselves to ridding their lands of Christian infidels and other enemies. In preparation for their murderous forays, they would fortify themselves by consuming large quantities of hashish, and thus became known as "hashashin," or "hashish eaters." When the word was imported into English in the 17th century, it was spelled more phonetically, and "assassin" eventually came to mean anyone who commits murder, usually of a public figure, for political, psychological, monetary or religious reasons. http://www.word-detective.com/100699.html#assassinnimrod
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It's a common misconception that assassins got their name because they took hashish. It's a good story but it simply isn't true. They were Muslim fundamentalists. The idea of drinking alcohol or taking drugs was abhorrent to them. The word "Hashish" and the word "Assassin" have, I'm afraid, no link whatsoever.
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well anderson777 is somewhat correct but it had nothing to do with "eating" Hashish the word acctually comes from the word Hashashin (also Hashishin, Hashashiyyin or Assassins) which was a muslim religious sect with the determination of ridding christians from the middle east and regards to the above poster it infact does have a link
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The term assassin, which appeared in European languages in a variety of forms (e.g., assassini, assissini, and heyssisini), was evidently based on variants of the Arabic word hashishi (pl. hashishiyya, hashishin). The latter was applied by other Muslims to Nizaris in the pejorative sense of “low-class rabble” or “people of lax morality,” without any derivative explanation reflecting any special connection between the Nizaris and hashish, a product of hemp. This term of abuse was picked up locally in Syria by the Crusaders and European travelers and adopted as the designation of the Nizari Ismailis. Medieval Europeans—and especially the Crusaders—who remained ignorant of Islam as a religion and of its internal divisions were also responsible for fabricating and disseminating (in the Latin Orient as well as in Europe) a number of interconnected legends about the secret practices of the Nizaris, the so-called “assassin legends.” In all probability, it was the abusive name hashishi that gave rise to the imaginative tales disseminated by the Crusaders.
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