plagiary

English

Alternative forms

• plagiarie [16th-17th c.]

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin plagiārius (“kidnapper, plagiarist”), from plagium (“kidnapping”), probably from plaga (“a net, snare, trap”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpleɪdʒ(ɪ)əɹi/

Noun

plagiary (countable and uncountable, plural plagiaries)

1. (archaic) A plagiarist.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

2. (obsolete) A kidnapper.
3. The crime of literary theft; plagiarism.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.6:

     Plagiarie had not its nativity with Printing, but began in times when thefts were difficult, and the paucity of Books scarce wanted that Invention.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

Derived terms

• plagiarism
• plagiarist

Adjective

plagiary (not comparable)

1. (archaic) plagiarizing
   • 1863, The Home and Foreign Review (issue 5, page 87)

     The busy bee is his classical device, and the simile confesses and justifies his plundering propensities; but the plagiary poet who steals ideas is represented by another insect, […]

Further reading

• “plagiary”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “plagiary”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.