interloper

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   One who interferes, intrudes or gets involved where not welcome, particularly a self-interested intruder.

   They disliked the interloper, and forced him to leave.

Simplified etymology

Interloper was coined in the late 16th century for an unauthorized trader who infringed a trade monopoly. It is a hybrid combining an element derived from Latin inter, “between” or “among,” with the second part of landloper, an old Dutch-derived word for a vagabond or tramp.

From inter- + loper (“runner, rover”), as in landloper (“vagrant”) (from lope (“to leap, to jump”) (originally dialectal)). Originally spelt enterloper and used in specific sense, “unauthorized trader trespassing on privileges of chartered companies”, later general sense of “self-interested intruder” from 1630s.

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