Larceny

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈlɑː.sən.i/

Definitions

1. The unlawful taking and carrying away of someone else's personal property with the intent to permanently deprive them of it
2. The act of unlawfully seizing and removing another person's belongings with the intention of permanently denying the owner access to their property
3. It involves the illicit acquisition and transport of someone else's possessions, intending to permanently rob the rightful owner of their assets

Etymology: The most surprising link here is that a crime word descends from a word for paying wages. The Greek "látron" meant "pay" or "hire," and from it came "latro," a Latin word for a hired fighter or mercenary, which then came to mean "robber." Latin "latrocinium" took that sense further, meaning "robbery," and it was this word that passed into Anglo-Norman French as "larcin," meaning "theft." English borrowed the French form in the fifteenth century, shaping it as "larceni" between about 1425 and 1475. The word is a doublet of "latrociny," meaning two English words that came from the same Latin source by different routes, with one arriving through French and the other taken more directly from Latin. Both now sit in the language with overlapping sense, though "larceny" has become the everyday legal term.

Synonyms: theft, stealing, robbery, burglary, pilfering

Antonyms: lawfulness, honesty, integrity, legitimacy, trustworthiness