Talk:stealer

Perhaps not non-standard when referring to certain malware, e.g. "a password stealer". Equinox ◑ 16:45, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Whose cockamamie idea was "non-standard" in the first place? My Webst Coll & Amer Herit both list it without def, or further comment, following the verb's entry. The only sense i can make out of "non-s" is that "thief" is shorter, and it strikes me that "thief" has a connotation of "thief by trade" (or "... as a long-standing practice", as in The Book Thief) while "stealer" suggests either metaphor or a single or infrequent transgression:
 * wife-stealer (About 450,000 results) chicken-stealer (About 280,000 results) child-stealer (446,000 results child-stealer gypsy OR gipsy -"Child Catcher" ( 1,660,000 results)
 * --Jerzy•t 06:42, 29 January 2015 (UTC)


 * "Stealer" is not standard unless in combination (e.g. your "child-stealer" example). You wouldn't say that the police had arrested a stealer, but a burglar or thief. Equinox ◑ 13:30, 29 January 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks; agree that your retort "unless..." is well founded, and i like your solution. :)  (And why don't our commercial colleagues i cited deal with it in your sensible way?!) --Jerzy•t 03:07, 21 July 2016 (UTC)