Kleptos

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term used to describe an individual who engages in theft
2. a label for someone exhibiting compulsive stealing behavior
3. a classification that highlights a psychological impulse leading to stealing objects not needed for personal use

Etymology: "Kleptos" is the plural form of "klepto," the English word for a habitual thief, and the plural is an unusual one: it reflects the Greek plural ending of the source word rather than the English "-s" most readers would expect. In Greek, the plural of this noun is "kleptoi," and the English borrowing "klepto" is a clipped form of the Greek word for a thief, "kleptēs," from which the adjective "kleptomaniac" was later built with the Greek "mania," meaning madness. Because the plural has been retained in its Greek shape, it appears mainly in technical or scholarly writing, where the Greek plural is kept deliberately. In everyday speech, writers normally say "kleptos" only when quoting or imitating that Greek usage, and otherwise speak of several "kleptos" in the ordinary English plural form.