# Why is it "Rapist" and not "Raper" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 12, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954 "2005-06-12T06:39:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/1 "2005-06-12T06:39:50Z")
I hate the term “rapist” because it sounds like the person you’re talking about is studying rape or something, like a biologist or a dentist. We say “burglar,” “robber,” “murderer” and “gangster,” so why isn’t the word for someone who rapes “raper?” Furthermore, what other words (I know there are some) end with “ist” even though it’s not in reference to someone studying or practicing a topic? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/2 "2005-06-12T06:58:07Z")
Well, a rapist is one who practices rape… Like an extortionist practices extortion. Or an arsonist practices arson. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/3 "2005-06-12T07:53:57Z")
We had a Gas station here a while ago called “Rapers Gas”. So they had that part right. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/4 "2005-06-12T12:03:55Z")
Years ago, when I hung out near cops and the criminal courts more, “raper” actually seemed to be the slang term that most commonly used – part of the jargon of the trade as it were. That’s all I got. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/5 "2005-06-12T13:04:59Z")
Arlo Guthrie used that form in _Alice’s Restaurant Massacree_ when describing those sitting next to him on the group W bench. ---
**Author:** ![Zahava424](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/76d3ee/32.png) [@Zahava424](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zahava424)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/6 "2005-06-12T14:10:54Z")
If I recall correctly, the term he used was “father-rapers.” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/7 "2005-06-12T14:28:57Z")
Probably just a matter of common usage. We would say “He’s a raper of young women”, but that he is a serial rapist. That someone is a ‘raper’ is probably more correct than ‘rapist’. “Burglar” is not a verb form (that would be ‘burgle’), it’s a noun, and “burglary” the practice. “Robbery” is the practice of robbing, not “robber”. When you say that someone is a robber, the object is implied, i.e., “he’s a robber (of banks).” “Gangster” is also not a good example to use, as it has no verb form that I’m aware of. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/8 "2005-06-12T17:41:19Z")
Typist is another weird example. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/9 "2005-06-12T18:33:04Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > Typist is another weird example. It is amusing that when the typewriter was first invented, the ladies who are now called typists, were then refered to as typewriters. Also, I never understand why the John Wayne movie was called _The Shootist._ ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/10 "2005-06-12T19:06:35Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > I hate the term “rapist” because it sounds like the person you’re talking about is studying rape or something. Webster’s 1913 defines “-ist” as: “A noun suffix denoting an agent, or doer, one who practices, a believer in.” “Rapist” is derived from the noun form of “rape”. The verb form of “rape” is a recent innovation. (Well into the 20th century.) _It’s_ the oddity, not “rapist.” We would talk of “The rape of the Sabine women,” not “the raping of the Sabine women,” and we would never say “The Romans raped the Sabine women.” (Ignoring that that example predates the more specific sense of sexual assault.) Absent the verb form, “raper” would have been incorrect and strange sounding. We were already used to calling rapists “rapists” when we started using “rape” as a verb – and we continue to use rape as a noun. So why change the word to “raper?” Rapist, bigamist, extortionist, terrorist – whatever. Any association you make with academics is coincidental. It’s just a noun thing. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/11 "2005-06-12T19:40:08Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > Typist is another weird example. which also falls into **Larry Mudd** ’s note about deriving from a noun. Type refers to the letters which are dipped in ink and pressed to paper. The verb “to type” came much later. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/12 "2005-06-12T20:11:27Z")
> [@Zahava424](#): > > If I recall correctly, the term he used was “father-rapers.” Mother rapers too: > [@](#): > > - “…and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me!”\* ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/13 "2005-06-12T20:29:23Z")
If I make art, would that make me an ‘arter’? > [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > Also, I never understand why the John Wayne movie was called _The Shootist._ In the Old West people we now call ‘gunslingers’ or ‘gunfighters’ were called ‘shootists’. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/14 "2005-06-12T20:56:38Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > If I make art, would that make me an ‘arter’? Absolutely, and you would display your work in an artery. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/15 "2005-06-12T21:22:51Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Absolutely, and you would display your work in an artery. \One art, please\ ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/16 "2005-06-12T21:51:40Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > Also, I never understand why the John Wayne movie was called _The Shootist._ Gun guru Jeff Cooper insists that “shotist” with a single o is correct. Then again he habitually refers to himself in the third person plural so… ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/17 "2005-06-12T22:57:27Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > It is amusing that when the typewriter was first invented, the ladies who are now called typists, were then refered to as typewriters. It’s said that the first common use of the word “computer” referred to a person, generally a woman, whose job it was to compute numbers (manually or perhaps with the help of a mechanical adding machine). ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/18 "2005-06-12T23:53:32Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > It’s said that the first common use of the word “computer” referred to a person, generally a woman, whose job it was to compute numbers (manually or perhaps with the help of a mechanical adding machine). “Computer” and “calculator” have both been in use to refer to people who perform mathematical operations since the 18th century, at least. (Much more commonly applied to men, until the Second World War.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/19 "2005-06-13T00:32:48Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#): > > We had a Gas station here a while ago called “Rapers Gas”. So they had that part right. Bah. They ain’t got nothing on “Tom Raper RV Dealership” in or about Charleston, West Virginia. I always get a kick driving past them on 77. [www.tomraper.com](http://www.tomraper.com) ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954/20 "2005-06-13T01:07:22Z")
Why rapist? So we can make silly therapist/the rapist jokes. Bigamist? Well, now. That’s another joke entirely, an ethnic one. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-rapist-and-not-raper/307954.md?page=2)