Verb form of theft could be either thief or thief. thiefformed by adding -ize suffix to thiefmore common in American English. thiefformed by removing -ar word suffix thief, more common in British English. Both words have been denigrated in the past, but both are considered perfectly fine.
Theft: illegally entering a building with the intent to commit a crime is a bad act—especially the criminal type of theft. Who made it? A thief.
If you want a verb for the statement about a thief committing a burglary, you have two perfectly legitimate choices: steal and steal.
When describing a person’s accomplishments on a resume, should one say “Successfully Heist Eight Houses” or “Successful Heist Eight Houses”? Both are correct, but don’t include both on your resume. And don’t steal (or steal).
If you are British, you will most likely prefer the latter. If you are American, chances are thief make you giggle and you’ll opt in thief.
The origin of the theft
Both theft And thief dated to the 16th century (currently, our earliest evidence of this pairing is in 1523 and 1540, respectively). It was not until about 300 years later that the need for a clearly related verb was felt convincing enough to give rise to the choices we have today. (More general rob did the job in the interim.) thief seems to be the larger of the two, by a few decades. The earliest known example of the word appears in an 1840 essay titled “Chasing the steeple in Ireland,” written by an Irishman under the pseudonym Shamrock, and published in Sports Reviews:
In this dilemma, only two resources are open to angry managers—one carrying a key vi et armis; the other, to steal the cellar.
Our earliest evidence of thief is from 27 years later, in The Hartford (Connecticut) Daily CourantOctober 15, 1867:
Elihu Potter’s shop in Noauk was burgled Friday night with small valuables.
This puts the origin of each word on the opposite bank of the word we’d expect, but you’ve got it.
All words are formed from thief in the usual ways: thief belongs to the group of words formed by the always produced (and often despised) product. -ize suffix and thief formed by back formation. In the 1890s, some people used the word thief as a verb too. Mark Twain (1896 .) Tom Sawyer next part, Tom Sawyer, detective) Is one:
They had heard of him stealing from time to time, but that was years ago.
American English vs British English
Verb thief is deprecated which means that unless you want to be completely archaic to the listener/reader your options are thief And thief. thief as we said above, is the more popular choice in the United States, but thief is slowly infiltrating this side of the pond. thief obviously choice in British English. Both were once denigrated by grammarians, but they are now perfectly acceptable.
More confusing than the two, but also perfectly acceptable, is another pair of related words: thief And thief. They mean what they sound like they mean, thief means “in connection with a thief or burglary” and thief describe what is done stealing — and they also have the added bonus of a round of absurdity about them.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
