Reaving

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Taking property or goods by force or through violent robbery
2. Seizing belongings unlawfully often during a raid or attack
3. Forcibly stealing valuables from others in a violent or aggressive manner

Etymology: Reaving is the present participle of "reave", and its story runs through the same root as "rob". In Old English, "rēafian" meant to plunder or seize spoils, and the noun "rēaf" meant booty itself. The Old English past participle "rofen" meant "torn" or "broken", which hints at the older sense of violent tearing. Germanic relatives such as German "rauben" (to rob) and Swedish "röva" (to plunder) keep the core idea of taking by force. Reaving has a surprising cousin in Latin "rumpere", "to break", which shares the same ancient root. The idea of breaking something apart and the idea of seizing it by violence seem to have grown from one shared starting point, a connection that is easy to miss when you see the modern verb alone. The word also picked up a second life in English. "Reave" was altered under the influence of "rive", meaning to tear or split, so the two verbs became tangled in speech and spelling. Much of the familiar sense of plundering and tearing away owes something to that blending.

Synonyms: plundering, raiding