robber

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English robbour, robbere, either directly taken from or from a calque of Old French robeor. Equivalent to rob + -er. Compare reaver ("robber, plunderer"), a native English word derived from Proto-Germanic *raubārijaz that is ultimately of more or less the same composition as robber. And compare rover ("a pirate"), another word of the same composition.

noun

  1. A person who robs.
  2. An animal who robs.
    I remember as a boy in my native land the bad name the common magpie (Pica caudata) had as a destroyer of chickens, and a robber of nests. 1907, Frederick William D'Evelyn, “Slaughter of Blue Jays”, in The Condor, volume 9, number 2

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