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loot

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Loot and loot-

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

    Borrowed from Hindi लूट (lūṭ, “booty”), either from Sanskrit लोप्त्र (loptra, “booty, stolen property”) or लुण्ट् (luṇṭ, “to rob, plunder”). The figurative meaning developed in American English in the 1920s, resulting in a generalized meaning by the 1950s.

    Noun

    loot (uncountable)

    1. Synonym of booty, goods seized from an enemy by violence, particularly (historical) during the sacking of a town in war or (video games) after successful combat.
      • 1788, Indian Vocabulary, page 77:
        Loot, plunder, pillage.
      • 1839, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, number 45, page 104:
        He always found the talismanic gathering-word Loot (plunder), a sufficient bond of union in any part of India.
      • 1860, William Howard Russell, My Diary in India in the Year 1858–9, volume II, page 340:
        Why, the race [of camp followers] is suckled on loot, fed on theft, swaddled in plunder, and weaned on robbery.
      • 1862, Walter F. Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, volume II, page 505:
        The horses in the archbishop's stables the murderers appropriated as their own fee,—or, as we should now say, as loot.
      • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 146:
        But yet, with the persistent avariciousness of the white man, the Arabs clung to their loot, and when morning came forced the demoralized Manyuema to take up their burdens of death and stagger on into the jungle.
      • 2015, Shashi Tharoor, "Britain Does Owe Reparations", 00:02:22:
        India went from being a world-famous exporter of finished cloth into an importer, went from having 27% of world trade to less than 2%. Meanwhile, colonialists like Sir Robert Clive bought their rotten boroughs in England on the proceeds of their loot in India while taking the Hindi word "loot" into their dictionaries as well as their habits.
      The loot from the sack of Constantinople included the head of John the Baptist.
    2. Synonym of sack, the plundering of a city, particularly during war.
      He consented to the loot of the city by the men under his command.
    3. (colloquial, US) Any valuable thing received for free, especially Christmas presents.
      • 1956 April 23, Life Magazine, p. 131:
        Free Loot for Children
    4. (slang) Synonym of money.
      • 1951 November, Thelma Carpenter, quotee, “10 ways to get a mink coat”, in Jet‎, Johnson Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 46:
        I got my mink the hard way. I paid for it. It cost a lot of loot and it took a little while to do it, but it's all mine.
      • 1956, Billie Holiday et al., Lady Sings the Blues, page 26:
        There was nothing to do except for Mom to go back slaving away as somebody's maid. In Baltimore she couldn't make half the loot she could up North.
      • 1963, Advertising & Sales Promotion‎, volume 11, Crain Communications:
        How about all of those guys, dolls, dancers, fancy orchestration, and special lyrics? Didn't all of that cost a lot of loot? A good question. Would you believe me if I told you that we bought all of that talent for less than $10,000?
      • 2019 July 3, Mike D'Angelo, “Oscar Isaac and Ben Affleck Blunder through a Heavy Heist in J.C. Chandor’s Triple Frontier”, in AV Club‎, archived from the original on 21 November 2019:
        Movies and TV were […] continuing to pretend for many years that the contents of a single briefcase could purchase a small country. Lately, though, filmmakers have made some sincere efforts to be realistic about the sheer bulk of pilfered loot)
    Derived terms
    Descendants
    • → Portuguese: loot
    Translations

    Verb

    loot (third-person singular simple present loots, present participle looting, simple past and past participle looted)

    1. (transitive) Synonym of plunder, to seize by violence particularly during the capture of a city during war or (video games) after successful combat.
      We looted the temple and the orphanage, which turned most of the NPCs against us.
      • 1833, The Asiatic Journal & Monthly Register for British India & Its Dependencies, page 66:
        Gunganarian, the leader of the Chooars, continues his system of looting and murder
      • 1842 May 17, Lord Ellenborough, letter:
        The plunderers are beaten whenever they are caught, but there is a good deal of burning and ‘looting’ as they call it.
      • 1901 October 11, “District Reports”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record‎, volume 4, number 16, page 483:
        On the 22nd ultimo the Boers made a raid into the District, and the result was that some 300 head of cattle and 600 sheep were looted.
    2. (transitive, chiefly South Asian) Synonym of rob, to steal something from someone by violence or threat of violence.
      • 1851 June 20, Mrs. Hervey, journal:
        He told me... that if I gave him less than to the master of the luggage-boat, he would... declare at Shēr-Gurry that I had ‘looted him!’
    Derived terms
    Descendants
    Translations

    Etymology 2

    Borrowed from Middle Dutch loet or loete (“scoop, shovel, scraper”), from reconstructed Old Dutch *lōta, from Old Frankish *lōtija (“scoop”), from Proto-Germanic *hlōþþijō (“scoop”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂- (“to lay down, deposit, overlay”).

    Related to lade and ladle, and cognate with Dutch loet, Scots lute or luyt (“scoop”), West Frisian loete or lete, Middle Low German lōte (“rake”), and French louche (“ladle”).

    Alternative forms

    Noun

    loot (plural loots)

    1. (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A scoop used to remove scum from brine pans in saltworks.

    Etymology 3

    Clipping.

    Noun

    loot (plural loots)

    1. (US military slang, dated) Clipping of lieutenant.
      • 1898, Finley Peter Dunne, Mr. Dooley in Peace & War, page 11:
        R-run over an' wake up th' loot at th' station.

    References

    Anagrams

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    Dutch

    Pronunciation

    Etymology 1

    From Middle Dutch lote, from Old Dutch *lōt, from Proto-Germanic *lōda, related to *landa- and *leudaną (“to grow, sprout, shoot up”).

    Noun

    loot m (plural loten, diminutive lootje n)

    1. a sprout, shoot, stem etc. growing on an existing plant part
      Synonym: scheut
    2. a descendant, offspring
    3. something originating, growing, developing from another
    Derived terms
    • loten (to sprout)
    • waterloot

    Etymology 2

    See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

    Verb

    loot

    1. inflection of loten:
      1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
      2. imperative
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    Middle Dutch

    Etymology

    From Old Dutch *lōt, from Proto-West Germanic *laud.

    Noun

    lôot n

    1. lead (metal)
      Synonym: bli

    Inflection

    More information singular, plural ...

    Descendants

    Further reading

    Portuguese

    Etymology

      Etymology tree
      Prakrit 𑀮𑀼𑀝𑁆𑀝 (luṭṭa)
      Hindi लूट (lūṭ)bor.
      English lootbor.
      Portuguese loot

      Unadapted borrowing from English loot. First attested in the early 2000's.

      Pronunciation

       

      Noun

      loot m (usually uncountable, plural loots) (Internet slang, video games)

      1. loot (goods seized from an enemy after successful combat)
        • 2004 November 6, Locke Cole, “Localização e preços de itens em Rookgaard”, in Fóruns TibiaBR.com‎:
          Loot (marrom): São os itens que podem ser pegos ao matar algum monstro.
          (please add an English translation of this quotation)
        • 2022 November 25, Eduardo Peixoto, 27:41 from the start, in DEBULHEI Cyberpunk 2077! Era PODRE, Ficou INCRÍVEL! 100+ Horas de Jogo (VIDEO SEM SPOILERS)😲😲‎, Curitiba: Aperte Start, via YouTube:
          Cyberpunk tem uma variedade de armas, equipamentos e implantes gigantesca e, claro, pra equipar o que tem de melhor, o V vai precisar de uma grana violenta. Fazer loot e vender tudo é uma forma de fazer um troco.
          /lut͡ʃi/
          (please add an English translation of this quotation)
      2. loot (any valuable thing received for free)
        • 2018 May 9, Jorge Loureiro Editor, “Mais loot exclusivo em Fortnite para os subscritores do Twitch Prime”, in Eurogamer.pt‎:
          O loot em questão é um pacote com um fato camuflado, uma picareta, uma mochila e o emote Freestylin.
          (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      Derived terms

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