1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Theft

THEFT, the act of thieving or stealing. In English legal usage the practice is to call this act by its Norman-French name of “larceny,” but properly theft is a wider term including other forms of wrongful deprivation of the property of another (see Larceny).

The O.E. word peofðe or biefðe is formed from peof, thief or peofian, to thieve, cf. Ger. Dieb, Du. dief, Goth. thiubs. The origin is not known. It may be related to Lithuanian tupēti, to crouch or squat down; thus “thief” would mean “one who hides himself.” The O.E. stelan, to steal, appears also in other Tent. languages, cf. Du. stelen. Swed. stjäla, Goth, stillan, &c. It has been doubtfully connected with Gr. στερεῖν, to deprive.

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