What is the exact definition of 泥棒?


In English:

  * a burglar is usually associated with someone who breaks into a house (victim is usually unaware during the burglary)

  * a robber is usually associated with that person who uses weapons and threatens you to give him your property (victim-aware of course)

  * a mugger is usually associated with a robber on the street (victim-aware)

  * a thief is usually one who sneakily steals things without resorting to violence (victim-unaware)

  * a pickpocket is usually associated with a thief on the street (victim-unaware)

So what exactly is the exact nuance of a 泥棒? perhaps most likely there isn't a
1-to-1 match so probably could someone write an explanation of 泥棒 without
using words like robber/mugger/thief/pickpocket/burglar etc

Side question: if we change 泥棒 to the hiragana form どろぼう, does it affect the
nuance in any way?




In this particular case, I can see quite straghtforward correspondence between
English and Japanese. But `泥棒` is also the cover term that can be used to
widely refer to all of these.

>   * 空き巣 'burglar'
>   * 強盗 'robber'
>   * 泥棒 'mugger'
>   * 盗人 'thief'
>   * スリ 'pickpocket'
>   * ハンバーグラー 'Hamburglar'
>

Writing it in hiragana does not change the nuance.

There is a stereotypical image for 泥棒:
[http://www.google.com/search?q=%E6%B3%A5%E6%A3%92&tbm=isch&biw=1272&bih=1055](http://www.google.com/search?q=%E6%B3%A5%E6%A3%92&tbm=isch&biw=1272&bih=1055)




In this particular case, I can see quite straghtforward correspondence between
English and Japanese. But `泥棒` is also the cover term that can be used to
widely refer to all of these.

>   * 空き巣 'burglar'
>   * 強盗 'robber'
>   * 泥棒 'mugger'
>   * 盗人 'thief'
>   * スリ 'pickpocket'
>   * ハンバーグラー 'Hamburglar'
>

Writing it in hiragana does not change the nuance.

There is a stereotypical image for 泥棒:
[http://www.google.com/search?q=%E6%B3%A5%E6%A3%92&tbm=isch&biw=1272&bih=1055](http://www.google.com/search?q=%E6%B3%A5%E6%A3%92&tbm=isch&biw=1272&bih=1055)

