Swindler
/ˈswɪn.dlɚ/noun
A person who uses deception to cheat others out of money or property.
Did you know?Swindler comes from German dialect swindeln, meaning to reel, wobble, or be dizzy, so the word originally carried the eerie sense of making someone lose their balance before it meant fraud.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*swind-
“to grow thin, waste away, or weaken”
German
German
schwindeln
“to be dizzy, to reel; later, to tell lies or cheat”
18th Century
English
swindle
“to cheat or defraud”
18th Century
English
swindler
“a person who cheats or defrauds others”