Also (erron.) condottiero. Pl. condottieri. [It. condottiere, f. condotto conduct + -iere, a later variant of -iero, repr. late L. -erius for -ārius.] A professional military leader or captain, who raised a troop, and sold his service to states or princes at war; the leader of a troop of mercenaries. The name arose in Italy, but the system prevailed largely over Europe from the 14th to the 16th c.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxviii. From this latter practice arose their name Condottieri.
1852. Grote, Greece, II. lxxi. (1862), VI. 325. He had now become a sort of professional Condottiero or general.
1874. Motley, Barneveld, II. xi. 30. The already notorious condottiere Ernest Mansfeld.
attrib. 1822. Byron, Werner, II. i. A kind of general condottiero system Of bandit warfare.
1887. Sat. Rev., 21 May, 741/2. Hawkwood … A highly respectable specimen of the condottiere species.
Hence Condottierism.
1887. Sat. Rev., 8 Jan., 35/1. Mere follow-my-leader-and-keep-my-place condottierism.
