THIEVE: to take by theft; steal.(Dictionary.com)

There we were, in the midst of a very tense game of Scrabble. My daughter and I have an on-going Scrabble tournament which has been in process for several years. At every visit the Scrabble board gets dusted off and we go at it.

She cackled as she inserted the word onto the board: thieve. I almost came out of my seat. “No way! There’s no such word!” I screamed. “Thief, maybe, and thievery. But there’s no such thing as to “thieve.” I won the point, of course, intimidating her into submission.

Then, late in the night this past Tuesday, an email was sent from her home to ours. It was simple. "Dave Letterman just used the word thieve. He asked Al Gore where he keeps his NPP, and AG responded that he wasn’t going to tell him. ‘What…you think I’m going to come over and thieve it?’ DL asked.”

I still didn’t believe it. I went to my friend, Dictionary.com and typed in the word.

”I don’t believe it!” I exclaimed. But whether I believed it or not, there it was:
“Thieve: to take by theft; steal.”

I was wrong! There is such a word. I have to admit, it’s probably one of those words more in use as an archaic word than one in common use. And leave it to Dave Letterman to be the one who forces the point!

Actually, I’m glad to have the word in my lexicon, in spite of the fact that I had to apologize to my daughter. I kind of enjoy those archaic words. I put such words as “abide, betwixt and forthwith” in that category. Not words I would expect to use in a blog, but they might show up in a novel or a poem.

My favorite quote from Shakespeare's Othello is:
"Who steals my purse steals trash. But he who from me filches my good name takes not that which enriches him, but leaves me a poor man indeed."
Now, substitute the word “thieves” for “steals” or “filches” and you have a very colorful quote…maybe not the way Shakespeare wrote it, but colorful anyway.

Do I sound like I’m scrambling? I am. I lost the point and I’m trying to make lemonade out of a lemon. Oh, well….