bandito

Bandito is the Italian past participle of bandire (to ban, to banish, to outlaw), from Germanic *bannjan (to proclaim, to command). A bandito was someone who had been formally banished — declared outside the law's protection. Once banished, a person had no legal rights and no legal livelihood. Banditry — robbery and violence on the roads — was often what followed. The word described a legal status before it described a criminal occupation.

Italian bandits became legendary figures in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Banditry was endemic in the Papal States, southern Italy, and Sicily. Some bandits — like Marco Sciarra or Angelo Duca (Angiolillo) — became folk heroes, celebrated by peasants who saw them as defying corrupt authority. The figure of the noble bandit, robbing the rich and helping the poor, has its roots in Italian banditry. The word traveled across Europe with the legend.

English borrowed 'bandit' from Italian in the late sixteenth century. Shakespeare used 'banditto' in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. By the eighteenth century, 'bandit' was standard English for a robber, particularly one who operated on roads or in wild territory. The American West added 'bandits' to its mythology — stagecoach robbers, train robbers, horseback outlaws. The Italian word fit the American frontier.

Today 'bandit' is used loosely: a 'one-armed bandit' is a slot machine. A 'time bandit' steals your attention. The word has softened from violent outlaw to mild inconvenience. But in parts of the world — northern Mexico, the Sahel, Southeast Asia — bandits in the original sense still operate: armed groups that control roads and extract payment from travelers. The word has not finished its work.