Scavenging

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The practice of seeking and gathering items or food that have been disposed of or abandoned
2. Involvement in the collection of unwanted or rejected resources, often for nourishment or repurposing
3. The act of searching for and retrieving usable materials or food that others have discarded

Etymology: "Scavenging" is the present participle of "scavenge," a verb that English formed by working backwards from an older noun. The noun was "scavenger," an official title once given to a person charged with inspecting goods and collecting customs or street dues. Speakers came to treat the "-er" ending as a sign of an agent, and so they trimmed it off to make a verb meaning to do what a scavenger does. The same pattern gave us words like "burgle" from "burglar," and it is the reason "scavenge" sounds like a verb with a noun hidden inside it. The "-er" in "scavenger" was not an English suffix for doing a job, though. It is the same ending that appears in "messenger" and "passenger," words where "-er" was attached to a verb or noun stem and never meant much on its own. Because "scavenger" was first a noun for an official, the sense of picking through other people's leftovers came later, and "scavenge" carries that same shift toward rummaging through discards.

Synonyms: foraging, collecting, gathering, searching, rummaging

Antonyms: discarding, wasting, abandoning