Reaver

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who attacks, plunders, or steals from others, especially one who engages in violent robbery or raids
2. A violent plunderer or robber who seizes property and goods through force and intimidation
3. One who pillages and steals by means of aggressive raids and destructive attacks on communities

Etymology: The word takes its shape from "reave," an Old English verb meaning to seize or plunder by force. Its ancestor, "rēafere," was simply a name for someone who did this kind of work: a robber, a spoiler, a plunderer. The ending "-er" is the same one that turns "bake" into "baker," so the word is literally "one who reaves." Its neighbours across the North Sea and Scandinavia tell a similar story. Dutch "rover," German "Räuber," and Swedish "rövare" all come from the same Germanic root and all mean robber in some form. English eventually kept "robber" and "rover" as well, so this word now sits alongside them as a more specialised cousin, one that keeps the raw sense of violent seizure from its verb. Middle English spellings varied widely, including "revere," "revour," "reiver," and "refar," and the "reiver" form in particular survived as a term for the raiders of the Anglo-Scottish border. Yet "reaver" itself, with its Old English core, is a direct inheritance rather than a borrowing.

Synonyms: plunderer, raider, looter, robber, thief

Antonyms: protector, defender, guardian, savior, rescuer