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Glite Dictionary
🍾 Illegal alcohol seller 💿 Illegal copy seller
bootlegger

bootlegger

1 6.4
A person who makes and sells illegal copies of music or films
  • noun
  • /ˈbuːtˌlɛɡər/
translation icon : vendedor de copias pirata
  • The authorities arrested a group of bootleggers distributing unauthorized copies of the latest blockbuster.

Examples

  • Amid hoots and whistles, Paulo said, "I'll have the name of your bootlegger."

    Fiction book (2001)

  • That's right, I'm a bootlegger.

    Capone (1975)

  • Trademark your name for everything! Then you can go to the search engines directly to remove the bootlegger content.

    Blog text (21)

  • Bootlegger?

    Disappearances (2007)

  • What can he do for you—a piking bootlegger?

    Lights of New York (1928)

  • The new laws are aimed at cracking down on bootleggers who sell pirated music and films online.

  • After investigating for months, the police finally caught the bootlegger behind the illegal streaming site.

Synonyms

trafficker
vsbootlegger
  • NSFW
62 8.0

A person who illegally buys and sells goods or people

focuses specifically on making or copying unauthorized media for sale
literary pirate
vsbootlegger
  • Texting
7.9

A person who copies or shares books online without permission

covers a wider range of media and often involves making copies for sale

How Illegal

counterfeiter
13 7.5
bootlegger
1 6.4
gray market
  • US
1 6.3
retailer
205 2.4

Surface Forms

bootlegger singular
bootleggers plural

Morphology

bootlegger = bootleg (semi-transparent) = boot + leg + er

The relation from 'bootleg' to 'bootlegger' is a regular agentive derivation using '-er' and is clear to learners who know 'bootleg'.

Etymology

Bootlegger later came to mean someone who makes or sells illegal copies of music, films, or software because these sellers secretly traded unapproved goods just like the old alcohol smugglers. So a modern bootlegger is a person who copies or sells media without the owner's permission.