Law. Also 6 larcenie, larsonie, 8 larciny. [app. f. AF. larcin (see LARCIN) + -Y, perh. with a recollection of L. latrōcinium.] The felonious taking and carrying away of the personal goods of another with intent to convert them to the taker’s use. Also gen. theft.
Distinction was formerly made between grand and petty larceny, the former being the larceny of property having a value of more, the latter of less, than 12 pence. Simple, mixed, or compound larceny (see quot. 1769).
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xiii. (1885), 142. There is no man hangyd in Scotlande in vij. yere to gedur ffor robbery. And yet thai ben often tymes hanged for larceny [ed. 1714 lacenye, MS. Digby larcerye].
1581. Lambarde, Eiren., II. vii. (1602), 272. All manner of theft, whether it were robberie it selfe, or great or petite Larcenie.
1596. Bp. W. Barlow, Three Serm., i. 126. Egging men on to Larsonies, Thefts.
1764. Burn, Poor Laws, 137. Picking of pockets, and such other larcenies.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 229. Larciny … is distinguished by the law into two sorts; the one called simple larciny, or plain theft unaccompanied with any other atrocious circumstance; and mixt or compound larciny, which also includes in it the aggravation of a taking from one’s house or person.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, vi. You are not charged with any petty larceny, or vulgar felony.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, II. 17. This god … wilt thou Not hate, thou, whom his impious larceny Did chiefly injure?
1871. Smiles, Charac., vi. (1876), 184. It is said that Lord Chatham was the first to set the example of disdaining to govern by petty larceny.
1875. Poste, Gaius, III. (ed. 2), 462. By English law, to take a man’s own goods out of the hands of a bailee, if the taking have the effect of charging the bailee, is larceny.
