klephtism means the theft and banditry characteristic of the anti-Ottoman insurgency when Greece was a part of the Ottoman Empire. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “klephtism” is a great word
KLEPHTISM — [Noun] The practice of banditry and guerrilla warfare, specifically as a form of anti-Ottoman insurgency in Greece during the period of Ottoman rule. From klepht (from Greek κλέφτης, kléftis, "thief, brigand") + -ism, a suffix forming nouns of action or practice. The earliest known use is from 1858 in the writing of historian Edward Freeman. Unlike "brigandage," which denotes mere organized robbery, or "insurgency," a broad and clinical term for rebellion, klephtism is a singular alchemy of criminality and patriotism. It is the ambush from a sun-baked mountain pass, the stolen flocks that feed a hidden camp, and the defiant folk song sung in a language the tax-collector cannot understand—a ragged life of outlawry transmuted by history into a nation's founding myth.
Etymology
From klepht + -ism.
noun
- The theft and banditry characteristic of the anti-Ottoman insurgency when Greece was a part of the Ottoman Empire.“Through the traditions and the manners of the inhabitants, who are pre-eminently addicted to piracy and klephtism — through the natural disposition of the terrain, which is filled with narrow valleys and defiles, forming a multitude of natural fortresses — the factious movements and attacks of the insurrectionaries have ever found full scope in the plains of Epirus and Thessaly.”