Meaning

noun a robber who takes property by threatening or performing violence on the person who is robbed (usually on the street)

originBorrowed from Hindi मगर (magar) / Urdu مَگَر (magar, “crocodile, alligator”), from Sanskrit मकर (makara, “sea monster”), ultimately from Proto-Dravidian *nek-V-ḷ- (“crocodile”) (DEDR 3732; reconstruction of Krishnamurti 2003) or Proto-Dravidian *mokaray- (“crocodile”), a verbal noun from *mok- / *moṅku- (“to eat greedily in large mouthfuls, devour, gobble”) (DEDR 5127 + 4897).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0