Other forms: marauding, marauded
To maraud is to roam about raiding and plundering. Marauding bands, maraud the coast, a marauding army.
It is used almost entirely as marauding, describing groups on the move rather than a single raid, and it suggests opportunism rather than a plan. A marauder is the one doing it, and the word also names a gull that robs other birds.
1verbmaraudTo roam about raiding and plundering.
“Bands of armed men marauded through the countryside, burning farms and stealing cattle.”
maraud is a raiding.
French marauder comes from maraud, a rogue or vagabond, of uncertain origin.
Proto-Indo-European
*mers- — to trouble, confuse, ignore, forget
Proto-Germanic
*marzijaną — to neglect, hinder, spoil
Frankish
*marʀijan — to neglect, hinder
Old French
*marault — beggar, vagabond
Middle French
maraud — rascal
French
marauder
English, today
maraud
Built from
From French marauder, derivative of maraud (“rogue, vagabond”), from Middle French maraud (“rascal”), from Old French marault (“beggar, vagabond”), from marir, marrir (“to trouble, stray, lose ones way, be lost”), from Frankish marʀijan (“to neglect, hinder”), from Proto-Germanic marzijaną (“to neglect, hinder, spoil”), from Proto-Indo-European mers- (“to trouble, confuse, ignore, forget”), + Old French - suffix -ault, -aud. Cognate with Old High German marrjan, marren (“to obstruct, hinder”), Old Saxon merrian (“to hinder, waste”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (“to offend”). Related to mar.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA