#26 - Thief!

How many kinds of thieves can you find in the English language?  Let's see...

Thief
Burglar
Robber
Shoplifter
Mugger
Pickpocket

In French, there are only two main words--voleur ("thief") and cambrioleur ("burglar").  Some of the other English words are more or less translatable, like "robber"--which could be either a voleur or a cambrioleur, depending on whether they're stealing from a person or a place--and a "shoplifter" is simply a voleur à l'étalage: an étalage literally meaning a merchant's stand or shop window display.

Now for the real untranslatables!


"Mugger" is defined on WordReference as simply agresseur but that's not accurate.  A "mugger" is someone who attacks you specifically so they can steal your stuff, while an agresseur could be attacking for any number of reasons.

"Pickpocket" has been directly copied into the French language.  On the Paris subway you often hear the announcement: "Des pickpockets peuvent d'être présents à bord" ("Pickpockets may be present on board").

So much for the nouns.  In fact, when it comes to verbs about stealing, French has almost as many words as English.  Not only can your valuables be volé--they can be piqué, chapardé, fauché, chouré, or chouravé, and a person can be dérobé.

I think English still takes the cake though.  Not only do all the previous words exist as verbs:

• to steal
• to burgle
• to rob
• to shoplift
• to mug
• to pickpocket

...but we can also say:

• to pilfer
• to purloin
• to pinch
• to nick
• to nab
• to swipe
• to lift
• to make off with

And probably a few others that I'm forgetting.  There are always a million slang words for illegal or shady activities, though I have no idea why we are so very precise about methods of thievery, even in mainstream "official" English.

After doing some digging around in the Online Etymology Dictionary, I found that the first recorded usage of some of these words came in the 1670s and 80s: ("shoplifter," "to pickpocket," and "to nab").  Not surprisingly, the fancier English words (les mots anglais soutenus) came from French: "to pilfer" from the Old French pelfre, and "to purloin" from the Old French porloigner.  Very surprisingly, however, "robber" also comes from French!  It's based on the archaic word robeor, ancestor of the modern French word dérober.  Who knew?