Other forms: thefts
Theft is the crime of taking what belongs to somebody else. Car theft, convicted of theft, identity theft.
In English law theft requires dishonestly appropriating property with the intention of permanently depriving the owner — which is why borrowing without asking is not always theft. Robbery is theft with force or the threat of it, and burglary is entering a building to steal. Note petty theft, shoplifting, and identity theft, which is not legally theft at all but is universally called it.
1nountheftThe crime of taking what belongs to somebody else.
“The theft was reported about a week after it happened.”
synonyms: robbery, stealing
theft is a crime.
Also accepted in games: robbery
Old English thiefth is built from thief plus the same -th ending that gives death and growth. It is one of the oldest crime words in English and has never needed replacing.
Proto-Germanic
*þiubiþō — theft
Proto-West Germanic
*þiubiþu
Old English
þīefþ
Middle English
theft
English, today
theft
Built from
From Middle English theft, thefte, þefte, þefþe, þiefþe, Old English þīefþ, from Proto-West Germanic þiubiþu, from Proto-Germanic þiubiþō (“theft”), from þiubijaną (“to thieve, steal”), equivalent to thieve + t. Cognate with West Frisian tsjeafte (“theft”), dialectal Dutch diefte (“theft”), obsolete German Diebde (“theft”), Icelandic þýfð (“theft”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA