Faytour

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a deceitful impostor or a vagabond rogue who lives by trickery and fraud
2. An old word for a cheat or swindler, a wandering rascal who makes a living by deceiving people
3. A obsolete name for a fraudster or idle vagrant who preys on others through false pretenses

Etymology: "Faytour" is an obsolete spelling of "faitour," a word that once meant a wrongdoer, a villain, or a rascal. It came into Middle English from Anglo-Norman "faitour," which is related to Old French "faitor," meaning "doer" or "maker." Both trace back to Latin "factor," the agent noun from "facere," "to do" or "to make," the same root that gives English words such as "factory" and "fact." The path from maker to malefactor is the striking part. A word that simply named someone who does things took on a negative sense, so that the doer became specifically a doer of bad deeds. Medieval writers used "faitour" for a cheat or a wicked person, and the word's ancestry in "factor" is easy to miss once its meaning darkened.