Etymology

robber

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Today it means: A person who robs. Full definition →

Middle English robbour ← Old French robeor ← Late Latin raubāre
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*Hrew-?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*Hrewp-
  3. Proto-Germanic*raubōną
  4. Frankish*raubōn
  5. Late Latinraubāre
  6. Old Frenchrober
  7. Old Frenchrobeor
  8. Middle Englishrobbour
  9. English todayrobber

Inherited from Middle English robbour, robbere, either directly taken from or from a calque of Old French robeor. Equivalent to rob + -er. Compare reaver (“robber, plunderer”), a native English word derived from Proto-Germanic *raubārijaz that is ultimately of more or less the same composition as robber. And compare rover (“a pirate”), another word of the same composition.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.