把不屬於自己的東西拿走
同一個行為，鏡頭遠近不同：一個是把它當成一類罪名在講，一個是指其中的某一次。英文靠可不可數就把這兩層分開了。
the crime of stealing · noun · B2
The crime of taking something that belongs to someone else without asking.
竊盜；偷竊（罪）
核心畫面
The picture behind `theft` is plain: something belonged to someone, and another person took it away without asking. The word is not interested in how it happened — no breaking in, no threats, no chase; those live in words like `robbery` and ``. `Theft` names one thing only: the thing changed hands, and that is how it changed hands.
theft 背後的畫面可以想得很單純：東西原本是別人的，有人在沒有問過、也沒有得到同意的情況下把它拿走了。這個字不去…更多收起
theft 背後的畫面可以想得很單純：東西原本是別人的，有人在沒有問過、也沒有得到同意的情況下把它拿走了。這個字不去描述過程——沒有破門、沒有威脅、沒有追逐，那些是 robbery、burglary 在講的。theft 只認定一件事：東西換了主人，而且是用這種方式換的。From the word’s history
Theft and thief grow from the same old Germanic word: Old English þeofð, built from the base meaning 'thief' plus an old ending that turns a person or quality into an abstract noun — the same shape as warm → warmth or strong → strength. So the word is literally 'thief-ness': not the person, but what the person does. That is why English keeps them apart in use — the human being is a thief, the act is a theft.
theft 跟 thief 是同一個古老日耳曼語詞根長出來的：古英文寫作 þeofð，由「賊」這個詞根加上一個把人或性質轉成抽象名詞的老字尾組成，跟 warm → warmth、strong → strength 是同一種構造。所以 theft 字面上是「thief 這件事」——不是那個人，而是那個人做的行為。這也說明了為什麼英文把兩個字分得很清楚：人叫 thief，行為叫 theft。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entry 'theft': early 13c., from Old English þeofð (West Saxon þiefð), from Proto-Germanic *theubitho, from *theubaz 'thief' + abstract-noun suffix *-itha.
One branch
原始詞典資料1 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
theftnoun/θɛft/
- 1
The act of stealing property.
- resource theft
- Bike theft is on the rise.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。