Plagiarize

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈpleɪd͡ʒəɹaɪz/

Definitions

1. To wrongfully use or replicate another person's work or ideas without any recognition
2. To unlawfully copy or present someone else's original work or thoughts as if they were one's own without appropriate citation
3. To take another person's written or creative work and claim it as one's own without acknowledgment

Etymology: The most surprising thing about this word is that its earliest sense was about kidnapping, not copying. The Latin "plagiare" meant "to kidnap, to abduct," and it grew from "plagium," a term for the crime of enticing away or stealing a person, especially a slave or free man. The Latin root carries the idea of ensnaring, which is why the word's first meaning concerned human beings rather than words. The link to writing came through "plagiarius," a Latin noun for a kidnapper, which also came to mean one who steals another's work. In that transfer, a writer's text was treated as a captured possession, something taken from its rightful owner. The English noun "plagiary" followed from this Latin line, and "plagiarize" was then formed from it by adding the suffix "-ize," which turns a noun into a verb meaning "to do or make into something." The verb descends through Late Latin "-izare," borrowed into Greek as "-izein," then passed through Middle French and Middle English before reaching its modern form. The suffix itself is what allowed English to turn a noun for a thief into an action anyone could perform.

Synonyms: copy, steal, appropriate, lift, borrow

Antonyms: originate, create, invent, develop, produce