Plagiarize
/ˈpleɪ.dʒə.raɪz/noun
To present someone else's work or ideas as one's own.
Did you know?Latin plagium meant the crime of kidnapping or stealing a person, and the modern literary sense was later coined by extending that same idea of theft to stolen writing.
Etymological Timeline
Ancient Greek
Greek
plágios
“slanting, oblique, sideways”
Classical Latin
Latin
plagium
“kidnapping; the crime of stealing a person”
Late Latin
Latin
plagiarius
“kidnapper; later, literary thief”
17th Century
English
plagiary
“a literary theft or plagiarist”
18th Century
English
plagiarize
“to commit plagiarism; to steal another's writing or ideas”
Modern English
English
plagiarize
“to present someone else's work or ideas as one's own”