the.com/pillage
Pillage is the violent seizure of a place's valuables, often during war, leaving destruction behind.
means To forcefully strip a place of its valuables, typically during war or raiding, taking whatever can be carried off.
from From French piller ('to plunder'), traced back to Latin pilleus and related forms tied to stripping or fleecing — some scholars connect it to pilare, 'to deprive of hair,' the same root giving us 'depilatory.' The image underneath is consistent across the centuries: strip something bare, take the covering off, leave nothing soft behind.
- etymology
- from latin pilare, to strip hair or plunder
- vs looting
- usually wartime and systematic, not opportunistic chaos
- legal status
- war crime under the geneva conventions since 1949
- viking method
- monasteries targeted first, gold and literacy both undefended