English
predacious
Predacious comes from Latin praedor ‘to acquire loot, such as through robbery or war’, and goes back to praeda.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpraeda1‘plunder, booty, loot’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpraedor2‘to acquire loot, such as through robbery or war’
- Englishearliest quotation 2017predacious2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin praedor
- 2 Wiktionary, English predacious
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2017, Hernan Diaz, In the Distance: “‘Behold the predacious lion that butchered our flock!’”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpraedaWiktionary, Latin praedor‘plunder, booty, loot’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpraedorWiktionary, English predacious‘to acquire loot, such as through robbery or war’
- Englishearliest quotation 2017predaciousWiktionary, English predacious. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2017, Hernan Diaz, In the Distance: “‘Behold the predacious lion that butchered our flock!’”
Formed from -acious
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- ‘to find’
yet, guess, prison, surprise, prize, comprehensive, comprise, apprentice, comprehend, comprehension, apprehensive, apprehend, reprehensible, apprehension, reprieve, beget, impregnable, impresario, prehensile, 32 more
through Latin praedor ‘to acquire loot, such as through robbery or war’
Today it means
adj —
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “predacious”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin praedor. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin praeda / predacious