Wreckers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals or groups that deliberately cause destruction or damage to property or objects
2. persons who salvage or remove valuable parts from dismantled vehicles or structures
3. those who work to undermine or ruin plans, efforts, or reputations of others

Etymology: Wreckers were once a feared group on the coast of Cornwall and elsewhere: people who lured ships onto rocks with false lights so they could plunder the cargo. The historical sense is not the one the word started with, though. "Wreck" came into English from Old Norse "vrak" and Anglo-Norman "wrek," and the earlier meaning was simply the goods a ship lost at sea, a sense it has kept in law, where wreck is property cast ashore. The agent suffix "-er" is the common English one, inherited through Old English "-ere" and Old French "-ier" from Latin "-arius," and it attaches to a noun to name a person who does or deals with something. So "wrecker" originally meant someone who dealt in wreck, and the plural "wreckers" is the form of that word.

Synonyms: destroyers, demolishers, wrecking crews

Antonyms: builders, constructors