Robberie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The crime of taking property from someone by force or the threat of violence, an archaic spelling of the same offence
2. An old spelling for the act of seizing another person's goods unlawfully, often through intimidation or physical harm
3. The unlawful taking of valuables from a victim by violence or menace, a form of theft carried out in person

Etymology: "Robberie" is simply an older spelling of "robbery," and the word it spells came into English from Old French, where "roberie" meant the act of stealing or pillaging. That French noun was formed from the verb "rober," "to steal; to pillage," with the suffix "-ie" added. The verb itself traces back to an unattested Frankish form, "*raubōn," which carried the same sense of seizing goods by force, and it is related to the German "Räuberei" (banditry) and Dutch "roverij" (robbery). English had a native word for the same crime before this one arrived. Old English "rēaflāc" (literally "plunder-play" in its parts) was displaced by the French borrowing, which in Middle English appeared in forms such as "robberie," "robry," and "roberie." Seen from inside English, the word looks like "rob" plus "-ery," and that surface analysis is how most speakers now understand it, even though the suffix entered by way of French.