People who take something for their own use, especially something that belongs to someone else or the public.
From Latin appropriare (to make one's own), combining ad- (to) + proprius (one's own). The suffix -ator indicates one who performs the action, and -s forms the plural.
Appropriators appear throughout history—colonizers appropriated land, artists appropriate existing works, and corporations appropriate cultural symbols. The word itself shows how power and ownership get tangled together in language.
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