Other forms: brigands
A brigand is a robber who lives by raiding travellers. A band of brigands, set upon by brigands, brigands in the hills.
It belongs to mountains and bad roads, and the word carries a whole picture of nineteenth-century Italy and Greece. Brigands were often former soldiers, which is where the word came from: it first meant a foot soldier of an irregular company.
1nounbrigandA robber who lives by raiding travellers.
“The coach was stopped on a lonely road by brigands who took everyone's gold.”
brigand is a robber.
bRIGand → he RIGs the road and waits
He rigs a rope across the road and waits for the next traveller to ride into it.
hooks ontorig
Old French brigand first meant a foot soldier, from an Italian word for trouble or strife.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷreh₂-
Italian
briga — trouble, bother
Old French
brigand — foot soldier
Middle English
brigaunt
English, today
brigand
From Middle English brigaunt, bregaund circa 1400, from Old French brigand (“foot soldier”) attested from 1421, from Italian briga (“trouble, bother”), perhaps ultimately of Proto-Germanic - or cel - origin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA