WORD HISTORY: Interloper

The word interloper has its origin in the time when England was embarking on the course that would lead to the British Empire. Interloper, first recorded in connection with the Muscovy Company, the earliest major English trading company (chartered in 1555), was soon being used in regard to the East India Company (chartered in 1600) as well. These companies were established as monopolies, and independent traders called interlopers were not welcome. The term is probably partly derived from Dutch, the language of one of the great trade rivals of the English at that time. The inter- is simply the prefix inter-, which English has borrowed from Latin, meaning "between, among." The element -loper is probably related to the same element in landloper, "vagabond," a word adopted from Dutch landloper, with the same sense and composed of land, "land," and loper, from lo;pen, "to run, leap." The word interloper, first recorded around 1590, was too useful in a world of busybodies to be restricted to its original specialized sense and came to be used in the extended sense "busybody" in the 17th century.