interloper

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun someone who intrudes on the privacy or property of another without permission

Etymology

From inter- + loper (“runner, rover”), as in landloper (“vagrant”) (from lope (“to leap, to jump”) (originally dialectal)). Originally spelt enterloper and used in specific sense, “unauthorized trader trespassing on privileges of chartered companies”, later general sense of “self-interested intruder” from 1630s.

In classic literature

Synonyms

intruder, trespasser

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