klepht

American  

[kleft] / klɛft /

noun

1. a Greek or Albanian brigand, exalted in the war of Greek independence as a patriotic robber; guerrilla.

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klepht British  

/ klɛft /

noun

1. any of the Greeks who fled to the mountains after the 15th-century Turkish conquest of Greece and whose descendants survived as brigands into the 19th century

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Other Word Forms

• klephtic adjective

Etymology

Origin of klepht

1810–20; < Modern Greek kléphtēs, variant of Modern Greek, Greek kléptēs thief, rogue; see kleptomania

Example Sentences

He was in his youth a Hayduk or klepht; and having been forced to fly from Servia for taking part in an unsuccessful insurrection, had served several years in the Austrian army.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846 by Various

Its principal agents were the klepht or brigand chieftains, best represented by Theodore Kolokotrones.

From The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc. Vol. I by Bourne, H. R. Fox (Henry Richard Fox)

Whoever was not a klepht was the victim of some official extortioner.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" by Various

In Peloponnesos the Primates were all-powerful, and Kolokotrónis the klepht was meditating a popular dictatorship at their expense.

From The Balkans A History of Bulgaria—Serbia—Greece—Rumania—Turkey by Forbes, Nevill