Confiscator

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual or entity that seizes property or assets, often for legal or governmental purposes
2. someone who takes possession of items without compensation
3. a person tasked with the retrieval of illegal or unapproved goods

Etymology: "Confiscator" is a plain formation: it is "confiscate" with the agent suffix "-or" added to name the person who carries out the action. The verb "confiscate" comes from Latin "confiscare", meaning to seize for the treasury, built from "con-" (together) and "fiscus" (a basket, and later the public purse). The suffix has a longer road. It descends from a Proto-Indo-European agent ending, passed through Latin "-tor" and "-ator", through Old French "-eor" and Middle English "-our", before settling in English as "-or". The word is thus a straightforward English agent noun, built on a Latin verb that was itself a compound of a word for money-basket. Its surprise lies less in its meaning than in the many centuries the ending travelled before it reached English.

Synonyms: seizer, requisitioner, expropriator, appropriator, impounder