raptor

Etymology

It is first inherited from Middle English raptour,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin raptor (“plunderer, robber, ravisher, abductor”),^{[4][2][5][6][7]} an agent noun formed with -or from raptus, the past participle of rapiō (“to seize, rob, carry off”).^[4][6][3][7] The bird sense follows New Latin Raptores, the name of the order of birds of prey (1823),^[3][4] and the dinosaur sense follows Velociraptor (1924) and similar genus names.^[4] The Oxford Dictionary of English explains the dinosaur sense as a shortening of velociraptor used by palaeontologists and made popular by the film “Jurassic Park” (1993).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A plunderer or ravener, also a bird of prey: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, where the goshawk is called raptour and rauyschere.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English word meant a plunderer, and was already applied to a bird of prey;^[2][3] the sense "plunderer, robber" is recorded until 1720.^[4] From 1592 it also meant a ravisher or abductor, a use now rare.^[4][6] The modern ornithological sense, a bird of prey, is recorded from 1783 in the OED and by 1873 in Etymonline, after the order name Raptores.^[4][3] In 1990, in Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, it was used for a dromaeosaurid dinosaur, after Velociraptor and similar names.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1398 – a plunderer, a robber (obsolete by 1720), also of a bird of prey.^[4][2]
• 1592 – a ravisher or abductor.^[4][6] Etymonline dates this to about 1600.^[3]
• 1783 – a bird of prey.^[4] Etymonline dates the modern ornithological use to 1873.^[3]
• 1990 – a dromaeosaurid dinosaur.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bird of prey, such as a hawk, eagle or falcon.^[9][6][4]
2. (informal) A carnivorous two-legged dinosaur of the Cretaceous, such as a velociraptor.^[9][4][10]
3. (rare) A ravisher or abductor.^[4][6][10]
4. (obsolete, 1398–1720) A plunderer or robber.^[4][10]

Related words

• oviraptor
• raptorial
• velociraptor
• rapt
• rapid
• rapacious
• rape
• ravish
• rapture

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press