invader

Etymology

It is formed from English invade + -er, an agent noun from the verb.^[2][3] The verb, recorded from the late 15th century, is from Latin invādō (“to go into, enter violently, attack”),^[3][4] formed from in- (“in, into”) and vādō (“to go, walk”).^[3][2][5] The same Latin verb is behind evade.^[3] Johnson (1755) still derived the noun directly from Latin.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Someone who invades, or enters a place in a hostile way: 1549, in Miles Coverdale's translation of Erasmus's Paraphrase of the New Testament.^[2][7] Etymonline dates the word to the 1540s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is military: someone who enters another's territory with hostile force.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as one who enters another's possessions with hostility, quoting Bacon on the Spaniards who did not dare to land in Ireland as invaders.^[6] From 1637 the word was used more widely of anyone who intrudes on or encroaches upon something, such as another's rights,^[2][7] and in 1651 Hobbes used it of someone who seizes or takes possession of something.^[2][7] Wiktionary records the modern sense of an intruder, especially on someone's privacy.^[1] Compounds such as pitch invader and space invader are recorded later.^[2]

Timeline

• 1549 – one who invades or enters in a hostile manner.^[2][7]
• 1637 – one who intrudes or encroaches.^[2][7]
• 1651 – one who seizes or takes possession.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, army or country that invades another's territory, especially with armed force: The invaders crossed the river at dawn.^[8][2]
2. A person who intrudes or encroaches, as on someone's rights or privacy.^[2][1]
3. A person who seizes or takes possession of something.^[2][7]

Related words

• invade
• invasion
• invasive
• evade
• pervade

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster