armatole

/ˈɑːmətəʊl/

Etymology

Borrowed from Greek αρματολός (armatolós), alternative form of αρματόλογος (armatólogos, “a person concerned or involved with arms or weapons”), from άρματα (ármata) (plural of άρμα (árma, “weapon”), from Byzantine Greek ἄρμα (árma), from Latin arma (“armour, defensive arms, shields, weapons of war”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂(e)rmos (“fitting”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (“to join”)) + λόγος (lógos, “subject matter”) (from Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos), from λέγω (légō, “to say”), from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-). The plural form armatoloi and possibly armatoli are from the Greek plural form αρματολοί (armatoloí).

armatole means A Greek armed mercenary who enforced Ottoman rule in Greece from the 15th century onward; during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832), many armatoloi became pro-independence guerrilla fighters opposed to Ottoman rule. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 78 out of 100.

armatole is pronounced /ˈɑːmətəʊl/.

Why “armatole” is a great word

ARMATOLE — [Noun] A Greek armed mercenary originally commissioned by the Ottomans to enforce local rule, many of whom later became pro-independence guerrilla fighters during the Greek War of Independence. From the Greek αρματολός (armatolós), an alternative form of αρματόλογος (armatólogos, "a person concerned with arms"), from άρματα (ármata, plural of άρμα (árma, "weapon"), from Byzantine Greek ἄρμα (árma), from Latin arma ("arms, weapons")) + λόγος (lógos, "subject matter, discourse"). Unlike a klepht—an outlawed anti-Ottoman bandit from the start—or a janissary—a conscript of the empire’s central military—the armatole existed in a shifting, contractual borderland of sanctioned authority. He was the armed silhouette policing a familiar mountain pass for a foreign purse, the fading Ottoman firman carried next to a hidden silver cross, and the licensed rifle turned against its issuer—the embodiment of how the instrument of control, left to sharpen itself in isolation, becomes the very blade of its own undoing.

noun

A Greek armed mercenary who enforced Ottoman rule in Greece from the 15th century onward; during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832), many armatoloi became pro-independence guerrilla fighters opposed to Ottoman rule.“[page 159] These [the Klephtai] are either Greeks whose ancestors taking refuge in the mountains when the Turks first conquered the country, have transmitted to them hereditary persecution and liberty; or Armatoloi (a sort of Grecian militia, originally established in Thessaly, armed for their own protection, and recognized, though always suspected, by the Turkish authorities) who have been driven”