Contextualizebeta

shop stealer

noun

Etymology

Unclear, but ultimately from shoplifter (which predates the verb shoplift). Structurally, shop steal + -er, but perhaps more likely is that both verb and agent noun forms were coined around the same time by alteration of shoplift / shoplifter to carry the nuanced greater emphasis on theft.

  1. derived from *tsel-✻
  2. derived from *stel(H)-✻
  3. derived from *ster-✻
  4. compounded as shop steal — “shop + steal”
  5. formed as shop stealer — “shop steal + -er”

Definitions

  1. A shoplifter.

    • If you suspect a shop stealer, pay this person a lot of attention.
    • 1989, Criminologica Foundation, Criminology & Penology Abstracts, Volume 29, Issues 4-6, page 438, This article reports comparisons of views on shop stealers held by involved professionals […] .

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for shop stealer. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA