Word of the Day

Monday, May 27, 2002

rapine

\RAP-in\ , noun;

The act of plundering; the seizing and carrying away of another's property by force.

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Quotes:

He who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his.

-- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (translated by N.H. Thomson)

Extortion and rapine are poor providers.

-- Olaudah Equiano, Unchained Voices: an anthology of Black authors in the English-Speaking World of the 18th Century

The war, proclaimed William Lloyd Garrison, was one "of aggression, of invasion, of conquest, and rapine - marked by ruffianism, perfidy, and every other feature of national depravity."

-- Robert W. Johannsen, "America's Forgotten War (Mexican War, 1846-1848)", The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 1996

Origin:

Rapine derives from Latin rapina, from rapere, "to seize and carry off, to snatch or hurry away," which also gives us rapid.