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pickpocket

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Etymology and origin of the English word pickpocket

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1591 Greene, Notable Discouery of Coosenage More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origins
Old English *picianAnglo-Norman pokete
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English pick
English pickpocket
From the same root
English picky ← pick

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈpɪkpɒkɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English pick + pocket,[2][3][4][5] after the phrase to pick a person's pocket.[2] The noun follows the older pickpurse, recorded from c. 1385 in Chaucer, itself after cutpurse.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thief who steals from pockets: 1591, in Robert Greene's Notable Discouery of Coosenage.[2][6] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun has been used figuratively and in extended senses as well as literally.[2] As an adjective, "thievish", it is recorded from 1625, in John Taylor.[2] Dates for the verb differ: Etymonline gives the 1670s, but the OED reads the 1673 example "They will dextrously pick pocket" as the phrase pick pocket with the article left out, and starts the verb in 1822.[3][2] In English regional use the name was given in the 19th century to weeds such as shepherd's purse and corn spurrey, which the Shorter Oxford describes as impoverishing the land.[2][4][6]

Timeline

  • 1591 – a thief who steals from pockets.[2][6]
  • 1625 – adjective, thievish.[2]
  • 1822 – verb, to pick the pocket of.[2]
  • 1854 – a plant, especially shepherd's purse.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A thief who steals money or valuables from people's pockets or from what they carry: A pickpocket took her wallet on the crowded tram.[6][2][4]
  2. (regional) Shepherd's purse or a similar weed.[6][2][4]

Adjective

  1. Of or like a pickpocket; thievish.[2]

Verb

  1. To steal from someone's pocket.[2][4]

Word family

  • pickpocketing

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
Cite this entry

“Pickpocket.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/pickpocket. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·