plunder
pronunciation
How to pronounce plunder in British English:
UK [ˈplʌndə(r)]
How to pronounce plunder in American English:
US [ˈplʌndɚ]
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- Noun:
- goods or money obtained illegally
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- Verb:
- take illegally; of intellectual property
- plunder (a town) after capture
- steal goods; take as spoils
- destroy and strip of its possession
Word Origin
- plunder
- plunder: [17] Plunder is of Dutch origin, and etymologically denotes something like ‘rob of household odds and ends’. It was borrowed from Middle Dutch plunderen, which was presumably derived from the noun plunde or plunne ‘household goods, clothes, etc’, whose origins are unknown.
- plunder (n.)
- "goods taken by force; act of plundering," 1640s, from plunder (v.).
- plunder (v.)
- 1630s, from German plündern, from Middle High German plunderen "to plunder," originally "to take away household furniture," from plunder (n.) "household goods, clothes," also "lumber, baggage" (14c.; compare Modern German Plunder "lumber, trash"), which is related to Middle Dutch plunder "household goods;" Frisian and Dutch plunje "clothes." A word acquired by English via the Thirty Years War and applied in native use after the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642. Related: Plundered; plundering. Plunderbund was a U.S. colloquial word from 1914 referring to "a corrupt alliance of corporate and financial interests," with German Bund "alliance, league."