Brewer's: Brigand

properly means a seditious fellow. The Brigands were light-armed, irregular troops, like the Bashi-Bazouks, and like them were addicted to marauding. The Free Companies of France were Brigands. (Italian, brigante, seditious; briga, variance.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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