Reft

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Having been forcibly taken away or stripped from someone, as in an archaic sense of robbery or bereavement
2. Describing something that was seized or carried off by force, or of which a person was deprived in an old-fashioned way
3. Past tense of the archaic verb meaning to plunder or deprive someone of something through violent seizure

Etymology: "Reft" is the past tense and past participle of "reave," and its story is tangled up with the verb "rive." Old English had "rēafian," meaning to plunder or seize goods, and it came from a Proto-West Germanic root that also gave German "rauben" and the English "rob." Reaving was originally about taking booty, so the earliest sense was closer to raiding than to tearing anything apart. Its modern meaning of "to take away forcibly" or "to bereave" grew out of that plundering sense. Along the way, "reave" picked up a second history. Old English also had "rofen," meaning "torn" or "broken," and the verb "rive" (to split or tear) became confused with "reave." Because of that confusion, "reft" today can sound like it means "torn apart," even though its core sense comes from seizing and carrying off.

Synonyms: robbed, plundered, stripped