English
plunder
Plunder comes from German plündern ‘to loot’, and goes back to Middle Low German plunderen.
- Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600plunderen
- Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350plundern
- Germanc. 1650–presentplündern‘to loot’
- Englishearliest quotation 1880plunder
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600plunderen
- Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350plundern
- Germanc. 1650–presentplündern‘to loot’
- Englishearliest quotation 1880plunder
Earliest quotation: 1880, The Peterson Magazine: “[…] till a long-legged boy brought him out of…”.
The story
Recorded since 1632 during the Thirty Years War, native British use since the Cromwellian Civil War. Borrowed from German plündern (‘to loot’), from Middle High German, from Middle Low German plunderen, from a noun originally meaning "household goods, bedding, clothing," of obscure ultimate origin.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. This is first attested in medieval records, and according to Gijsseling, is therefore attested too late to be considered a substrate word. Due to the lack of obvious cognates in other languages from which it would have been loaned, it could have developed as some slang word in Lower Saxony/the Low Countries.
Every English word from Middle Low German plunderen
Today it means
verb To pillage, take or destroy all the goods of, by force (as in war); to raid, sack.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle Low German plunderen / plunder