bandit, noun

Plurals:
bandits, banditti.
Origin:
DutchShow more Calque formed on Dutch bandiet robber, brigand.
A convict or prisoner; bandiet.
1795 C.R. Hopson tr. of C.P. Thunberg’s Trav. I. 237Robben Island is situated at the entrance of the harbour...It is become the retreat of chameleons, quails, and prisoners for life (called here banditti).
1799 Lady A. Barnard S. Afr. Century Ago (1925) 218Towards night..water rose so many feet..as to..go near to drown..all the bandits in the lower courtyard.
1837 J.E. Alexander Narr. of Voy. II. 297Two redoubts were..marked out; and with..a party of banditti, as the Dutch call convicts..the bush was soon cleared away for these works.
1851 R. Gray Jrnls of Two Visitations II. 177The Boers not unfrequently shut their doors in his face, telling him he is a ‘bandit’ or convict.
1927 C.G. Botha Social Life in Cape Col. 27They were..the banditti from the East Indies who had been sent to the Cape to serve out their term of imprisonment.
1967 J.G. Davis Hold my Hand (1969) 22Two tame bandits were walking ahead of him, unguarded, carrying sickles, returning from their hard labour in Mahoney’s garden.
1980 E. Prov. Herald 7 Oct. 1A gang of armed convicts went on a ‘terror spree’...Nobody had bothered to inform farmers that there had been a jailbreak and armed ‘bandits’ were on the loose.
A convict or prisoner; bandiet.
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17951980

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Dutch
bandiet, nounn.bandom, nounn.
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