plagiary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2017 is: plagiary \PLAY-jee-air-ee\ noun 1 : (archaic) one that plagiarizes 2 : plagiarism Examples: "When Amy Heckerling updated and reworked Emma into her 1995 film Clueless, she was not plagiarising Jane Austen, she was creating an imaginary conversation with a classic novel. If I'd opened this piece by writing, 'To steal or not to steal, that is the question,' the only literary misconduct of which I would be guilty is cliché, not 'plagiary,' to use the word's older form." — Sarah Churchwell, The Guardian, 30 May 2013 Did you know? Plagiarius, the Latin source of plagiary, literally means "kidnapper." Plagiarius has its roots in the noun plagium, meaning both "kidnapping" and "the netting of game," and ultimately in the noun plaga, meaning "net." The literal sense of plagiarius was adopted into English; in the 17th and early 18th century, a kidnapper might be referred to as a plagiary, and, in the legalese of the time, kidnapping as plagium. Plagiarius also referred to a literary thief—and that sense was lifted into the English language in the word plagiary, which can be used for one who commits literary theft (now usually referred to as a plagiarist) or the act or product of such theft (now, more commonly, plagiarism). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.