(kĭdˈnăpˌ)
transitive verb kid·napped or
kid·naped,
kid·nap·ping or
kid·nap·ing,
kid·naps To seize and detain unlawfully and usually for ransom.
Related Forms:
- kidˌnap·peeˈ, kidˌnap·eeˈ (kĭdˌnă-pēˈ) noun
- kidˈnapˌper, kidˈnapˌer noun
Word History: Appropriately enough,
kidnapper seems to have originated among those who perpetrate this crime. We know this because
kid and
napper, the two parts of the compound, were slang of the sort that criminals used.
Kid, which still has an informal air, was considered low slang when
kidnapper was formed, and
napper is obsolete slang for a thief, coming from the verb
nap, “to steal.”
Nap is possibly a variant of
nab, which also still has a slangy ring. In 1678, the year in which the word is first recorded, kidnappers plied their trade to secure laborers for plantations in colonies such as the ones in North America. The term later took on the broader sense that it has today. The verb
kidnap is recorded later (1682) than the noun and so is possibly a back-formation, that is, people may have assumed that a kidnapper kidnaps.
