droog meaning in Etymology Dictionary
"gang member, younger ruffian," a transliteration associated with the Russian word for "friend," introduced by English novelist Anthony Burgess in "A Clockwork Orange" (1962). The Russian word arises from Old Church Slavonic drugu "companion, friend, other" (source of Bohemian medicine "partner," Serbo-Croatian drugi "other"), which belongs to a small grouping of relevant Indo-European terms (like Lithuanian draugas "friend, taking a trip friend;" Gothic driugan "do army solution," ga-drauhts "soldier;" Old Norse drott, Old English dryht, Old High German truht "multitude, people, army") obviously with an original feeling of "friend."