scavenger
noun
Did you know?
You might guess that scavenger is a derivative of scavenge, but the reverse is actually true; scavenger is the older word, first appearing in English in the early 16th century, and the back-formation scavenge came into English in the mid-17th century. Scavenger is an alteration of the earlier scavager, itself from Anglo-French scawageour, meaning "collector of scavage." In medieval times, scavage was a tax levied by towns and cities on goods put up for sale by nonresidents in order to provide resident merchants with a competitive advantage. The officers in charge of collecting this tax were later made responsible for keeping streets clean, and that's how scavenger came to refer to a public sanitation employee in Great Britain before acquiring its current sense referring to a person who salvages discarded items.
Examples of scavenger in a Sentence
Jennifer M. Wood, WIRED, 21 Nov. 2024
Black bears are consistent and indiscriminate scavengers.
—Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 14 Nov. 2024
Her father appears chiefly as the builder of the family home and a scavenger of secondhand goods to fill it.
—Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2024
One type of station had the dead animal naturally placed on the ground, available to any kind of scavenger.
—Bygennaro Tomma, science.org, 11 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for scavenger 
Dictionary Entries Near scavenger
Cite this Entry
“Scavenger.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scavenger. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
scavenger
noun
from earlier scavager, from early French skawageour "one who collects a tax on goods sold by merchants from another town," from an early French dialect word escauver "to inspect"
Share