the.com/spoils
What winners keep, losers lose, and history quietly renames as rightful ownership.
means The money, goods, or advantages seized or gained through winning a war, contest, or position of power.
from From Latin 'spolia,' the stripped armor and weapons taken from a defeated enemy — the word originally meant the literal act of stripping a corpse or carcass on a battlefield. It traveled through Old French 'espoillier' before landing in English, carrying its violent origins with it: to 'spoil' something once meant to plunder it, long before the word softened into meaning merely 'ruin.' The phrase 'spoils of war' preserves the oldest, bluntest sense — things peeled off the loser's body.
- origin
- from spoil, to strip armor off the dead
- phrase
- to the victor go the spoils
- irony
- the word also means rotten food
- modern use
- corporate buyouts count as spoils too