Etymology
1. 1632, from M.H.G.
plunderen "to plunder," originally "to take away household furniture," from
plunder "household goods, clothes" (cf. M.H.G.
plunder "lumber, baggage," 14c.; M.Du.
plunder "household goods;" Fris., Du.
plunje "clothes"). A word acquired by English via the Thirty Years War and applied in native use after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642. The noun meaning "goods taken by force" is from 1647.
2. Recorded since 1632 during the Thirty Years War, native British use since the Cromwellian Civil War. Borrowed from German plündern (“to loot”), from Middle High German, from Middle Low German plunderen, from a noun originally meaning "household goods, bedding, clothing," of obscure ultimate origin. This is first attested in medieval records, and according to Gijsseling, is therefore attested too late to be considered a substrate word. Due to the lack of obvious cognates in other languages from which it would have been loaned, it could have developed as some slang word in Lower Saxony/the Low Countries.
3. Cognate with Dutch plunderen, West Frisian plonderje, Saterland Frisian plunnerje. Probably denominal from a word for “household goods, clothes, bedding”; compare Middle Dutch plunder, German Plunder (“stuff”), Dutch and West Frisian plunje (“clothes”).
4. The Philippine definitions originate with the Anti-Plunder Act, an act of Congress enacted in 1991. See: German, old spelling '
plündern', Dutch '
plunderen', Frisian, Saterlandic 'plunnerje'.
Verbs referencing "plunder"
German, old spelling
plündern, Swedish
plundra, Luxembourgish
plënneren.