Purloins

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To clandestinely and dishonestly take something that belongs to another, often for personal gain or benefit, without the owner's consent
2. To take someone else's property stealthily and without permission for one's own use or profit
3. To quietly appropriate belongings from another person in a dishonest manner

Etymology: "Purloins" is the third-person singular present form of "purloin," so the history belongs to the verb itself. The verb came into Middle English as "purloynen," meaning "to remove," borrowed from Anglo-Norman "purloigner," which meant "to put far away." That literal sense of distance is the key to the word: to purloin was originally to move something out of reach, and the modern idea of secretly taking another's property developed from that act of putting something aside where it could not be found. The word's ancestry runs through Old French "porloignier," a verb built from the idea of "far" (the same root as "loin," as in "far off"). Its relationship to "prolong" is a surprise: the two are doublets, meaning they descend from the same Old French source but reached English by different routes and took on different meanings. "Prolong" kept the sense of extending something in length or time, while "purloin" took the sense of removing or hiding a thing away.

Synonyms: steals, thieves, filches

Antonyms: gives, donates, offers