Other forms: marauders
A marauder is somebody who roams about raiding and plundering. Bands of marauders, a marauding army, marauders on the coast.
The roaming is essential, since a marauder moves on rather than occupying, which is what made raiders so hard to stop. The participle marauding is the commoner form now.
1nounmarauderSomebody who roams about raiding and plundering.
“The villagers built high walls to keep out marauders from the hills.”
marauder is a raider.
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
maraud
English, today
marauder
Built from
From maraud + -er. maraud comes 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