Community Chat

[PickyPicky3]

As usual, I'm watching Court TV, in this case the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial in Brunswick, Georgia.

Yesterday, while questioning a police officer, the prosecutor asked, "So he wasn't stealing anything -- he was just plunderin' around, right?"

My northeastern ears have never heard "plunderin' around." To me, to plunder means to steal. 

Could the prosecutor have made a language mistake, or is this a phrase used in the southeast?

**** Now they're discussing a police term "trespass-out." That's also new to me.

****Now they're talking about the phrase plundering around!!! Saying it doesn't mean stealing. Help!

[millieshops]

@PickyPicky3   I'm in southern Florida and have never heard plunder to mean anything innocent.  No idea what the prosecutor meant.

[stevieb]

Growing up, my parents used to talk about me 'plundering' through boxes or other closed or concealed areas to see what might be in them, so I do get an alternative meaning but clearly the most common use of the term sort of goes with pillage, and most often means to loot, rob, or take something that does't belong to one.

[Queen of shop]

@PickyPicky3  When I hear plunder, it reminds me of pirate stories. How the pirates plundered places that they landed. IMO the word is synonymous with robbing.

[SilleeMee]

Plunder means to steal. I wonder if that prosecutor meant to say rummaging around instead of plundering around.

[Porcelain]

I don't think the prosecutor would say that about the murder victim. He probably said blundering around.

[Desertdi]

Is it possible the word in question is BLUNDERING

[SXMGirl]

My grandmother grew up very poor in the south and she used plundering that meant to be going through things that did not belong to you.  She never said blundering.  It may be a regional word, like many that we have.

[PickyPicky3]

It's definitely plundering around. 

I just heard it used in a bodycam recording of a Glynn County officer.

Must be a regional usage. I'm sure Court TV got a lot of questions if they had their reporter specifically explain that it doesn't mean stealing.

We've lost so much unique regional language. It was a pleasure to hear a phrase like that.

[GrailSeeker]

I agree.  "Plunder" means to take something, unlawfully.

Never heard of it meaning anything else, and never heard of someone just "plundering around".  I'm from the Midwest.