different between pillage vs pilferage

English

Etymology

From Old French pillage, from piller (“plunder”), from an unattested meaning of Late Latin pili?, probably a figurative use of Latin pil? (“I remove (hair)”), from pilus (“hair”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?l.?d?/, /?p?l.?d?/
• Rhymes: -?l?d?

Verb

pillage (third-person singular simple present pillages, present participle pillaging, simple past and past participle pillaged)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To loot or plunder by force, especially in time of war.
   • 1911, Sabine Baring-Gould, Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe, Chapter VI: Cliff Castles—Continued,

     Archibald V. (1361-1397) was Count of Perigord. He was nominally under the lilies [France], but he pillaged indiscriminately in his county.

Translations

Noun

pillage (countable and uncountable, plural pillages)

1. The spoils of war.

2. The act of pillaging.
   • 2013, Zoë Marriage, Formal Peace and Informal War: Security and Development in Congo

     An employee at a brewery in Kinshasa rated the aftermath as more catastrophic to the company than the direct violence: It was more the consequences of the pillages that hit Bracongo – the poverty of the people, our friends who buy beer.

Synonyms

• (spoils of war): See Thesaurus:booty

Translations

French

Etymology

piller +? -age

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.ja?/

Noun

pillage m (plural pillages)

1. pillage

Norman

Etymology

From Old French pillage.

Noun

pillage m (plural pillages)

1. (Jersey) looting

Related terms

• pilleux (“looter”)

Old French

Noun

pillage m (oblique plural pillages, nominative singular pillages, nominative plural pillage)

1. pillaging

Related terms

• piller

Descendants

• ? English: pillage

English

Etymology

pilfer +? -age

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?lf(?)??d??/

Noun

pilferage (countable and uncountable, plural pilferages)

1. The individual act or recurring practice of stealing items of low value, especially in small quantities, for which the legal term is petty theft.
   • 1981, John Updike, Rabbit is Rich

     Still, there is pilferage, mysterious discrepancies eating into the percentages.

Translations