{"id":19923,"date":"2020-10-07T13:28:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T13:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=19923"},"modified":"2020-10-07T13:28:56","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T13:28:56","slug":"desist-latron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=19923","title":{"rendered":"Desist latron!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If I told you that I had been subjected to a <strong>latrocination<\/strong> by a <strong>latron<\/strong>, would you have any idea what I was talking about?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Latron<\/strong> is an old word from a robber, brigand or one who plunders. It comes from the Latin <em>latr\u014d<\/em> (mercenary, highwayman, brigand, bandit, robber), from the Proto-Indo-European <em>*leh\u2082t-<\/em> (to grant, to possess) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/latron\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The Welsh words <em>lleidr<\/em> [\u026cei\u032fdr] (thief), <em>lladron<\/em> [\u02c8\u026cadr\u0254n] (thieves, robbers), <em>lladrad<\/em> (theft, robbery), <em>lladrata<\/em> (to steal, rob) and <em>lladratwr<\/em> (thief) all come from the same root.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/londonmatt\/27818904397\/in\/photolist-Joga5H-oMPgVP-2jntYeN-UDwzdB-5qrj5V-GTwKyf-FnbM9g-bWA5Ku-f7FCBX-f7G2u8-f7G3dF-BHb8Z-2jmE4MY-2jKhZ2t-2jmpMkt-pBkaMx-5eJ7G-4xuS68-d3p1W9-bVuXLH-54qict-7bexhd-zdnHb-4rKH3P-NRmEp-9sqbrU-bnhgTb-5o5sQR-5quzU-9xE2oK-6jUhSW-MXUNjx-6sf3EB-eDyefw-NWZKra-nRfEqH-9t31Pp-uY2GA-nFuyfs-YjTYKQ-3257VL-aECjar-6quQy-28W41ei-33sz-28W41nV-2jEDFji-rdZnyq-ndrhPB-qyN39B\" title=\"Highwayman\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1746\/27818904397_9cb8f36f6c_z.jpg\" alt=\"Highwayman\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A <strong>latron<\/strong> might <strong>latrocinate<\/strong> or commit <strong>latrocination<\/strong> (robbery), <strong>latrociny<\/strong> (theft, robbery), <strong>latronage<\/strong> (robbery) or <strong>Latrocinium<\/strong> (an act of brigandage).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Latrocination<\/strong> is a legal term meaning &#8220;the act of robbing; a depredation&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.thelaw.com\/latrocination\/\">source<\/a>] &#8211; If any lawyers are reading this, is this a word you&#8217;ve ever used or heard?<\/p>\n<p>A depredation is &#8220;An act of consuming agricultural resources (crops, livestock), especially as plunder; A raid or predatory attack.&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/depredation\">source<\/a>] or &#8220;the act or an instance of plundering; robbery; pillage&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.collinsdictionary.com\/dictionary\/english\/depredation\">source<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/ 1783963581\/omniglot-20\"><em>The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities &#8211; A Yearbook of Forgotten Words<\/em><\/a> by Paul Anthony Jones, <strong>latrocination<\/strong> first appeared in English in the mid-17th century, and is &#8220;a formal word for theft of robbery&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Latrocinium<\/strong> [\u02ccl\u00e6t\u0279\u0259\u02c8s\u026ani\u0259m] is an act of brigandage or an illegitimate church council [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Latrocinium#English\">source<\/a>]. It comes from the Latin <em>latr\u014dcinium<\/em> (military service for pay; robbery, banditry, highway robbery, piracy, brigandage; pillage, plundering; an act of banditry or brigandage; a band of robbers; villany, roguery, fraud) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/latrocinium#Latin\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The English word <strong>larceny<\/strong> (the unlawful taking of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it permanently) comes from the same root, via the Middle English <em>larceni<\/em> and the Anglo-Norman <em>larcin<\/em> (theft) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/larceny#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>A related Latin word is <em>latrunculus<\/em> &#8211; a highway or robber, or a piece in the ancient Roman boardgame <em>ludus latrunculorum<\/em> (\u201cthe game of brigands\u201d), which was apparently somewhat like chess or draughts \/ checkers, and was popular throughout the Roman Empire [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ludus_latrunculorum\">more details<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately no latrons have latrocinated anything from me recently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If I told you that I had been subjected to a latrocination by a latron, would you have any idea what I was talking about? Latron is an old word from a robber, brigand or one who plunders. It comes from the Latin latr\u014d (mercenary, highwayman, brigand, bandit, robber), from the Proto-Indo-European *leh\u2082t- (to grant, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,10,15,45,77,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-language","category-latin","category-proto-indo-european","category-welsh","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19923"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19953,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19923\/revisions\/19953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}