Loot

How to spell loot

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce loot

What does loot mean?

1. nounValuables or money taken unlawfully, especially during a robbery, war, or riot.
2. verbTo steal goods, typically during a war, riot, or other disorder.

Loot in a sentence

• noun

  The burglars stashed the loot in a rented storage unit.

• verb

  Rioters began to loot the electronics shops along the high street.

• noun

  Detectives traced the stolen loot to a pawnshop across town.

• verb

  Invading troops would often loot the homes they passed.

Where does loot come from?

Language of origin: Sanskrit

Loot came into English from Hindi lūṭ, meaning 'plunder' or 'spoils', which traces back to the Sanskrit verb luṇṭati, 'he robs' or 'he steals'. British soldiers and administrators in colonial India picked up the word in the early nineteenth century, and it spread quickly through military slang for goods seized in war. From that narrow sense of battlefield or riot spoils it broadened to mean any stolen valuables, and in modern casual speech it cheerfully stretches to cover money in general or the haul of presents at a celebration. The word is one of a small group of everyday English terms (alongside 'thug', 'pyjamas' and 'shampoo') that arrived directly from the languages of the Indian subcontinent. Its short, simple spelling hides a genuine trap, since it sounds exactly like 'lute', the stringed instrument.

How the word is built

• loot (from Hindi lūṭ: plunder, robbery); a single unanalysable root borrowed whole into English