Pl. banditti, bandits. Forms: 6–7 bandetto, 7 bandite, -ditto, -dyto, -diti, 7–8 -ditty, -dito, 7– bandit. Pl. α. 6 -deti, 7 -ditie, 7–8 -diti, -ditty, -dity, 7– ditti; β. 6–7 dettos, 7 -ditos, -ditoes, -detties, -dities, 7–8 -ditties, 7– dits. [a. It. bandito ‘proclaimed, proscribed,’ in pl. banditi sb. ‘outlaws,’ pa. pple. of bandire = med.L. bannīre to proclaim, proscribe: see BAN sb. and v., and cf. BANISH. Early spellings, as well as the current pl. banditti, were apparently corrupted by form-assoc. with DITTO, It. detto, pl. detti. The It. sing. bandito is not now used in Eng.: bandit is also mod.F. But the pl. banditti (for It. banditi) is more used than bandits, esp. in reference to an organized band of robbers; in which sense it has also been used as a collective sing.; in 17th c. this was taken as an individual sing., with pl. -is, -ies.]
lit. One who is proscribed or outlawed; hence, a lawless desperate marauder, a brigand: usually applied to members of the organized gangs which infest the mountainous districts of Italy, Sicily, Spain, Greece and Turkey.
(Bandetto in first quot. may be attrib. sb. or ppl. adj.)
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. i. 135. A Romane Sworder, and Bandetto slaue.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 57. The Bandettos … are certayne outlawes that lie betwixt Rome and Naples.
1602. Life T. Cromwell, II. i. 95. The banditti do you call them?… I am sure we call them plain thieves in England.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 117. The Bandits … are the murdering robbers upon the Alpes.
1688. Lond. Gaz., No. 2310/3. He had lived as a Banditi in Anatolia.
1713. Steele, Englishm., No. 13. 84. The Examiner is no more a Tory … than a Bandito is a Soldier.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), II. 292. Each conquering great Commander, And mighty Alexander, Were Banditties too.
1800. Colquhoun, Comm. Thames, vi. 240. A set of lawless Banditti infested the River.
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 191. Why, every Baron in the land was a bandit.
1876. Green, Short Hist., v. § 1. 224. The routed soldiery turned into free companies of bandits.
b. collective sing. A company of bandits.
1706. De Foe, Jure Div., II. 15. He form’d the First Banditty of the Age.
1799. Wellington, in Owen, Disp., 146. In which province an adventurer had assembled a banditti.
1826. Scott, Woodst., v. 195. Deer-stealers … are ever a desperate banditti.
c. attrib.; and in comb., as bandit-haunted.
[Cf. 1593 in 1.]
1854. J. Abbott, Napoleon, I. xii. 208. Fierce banditti bands.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), V. IX. ii. 229. Wild Bohemians and bandit soldiers.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 879. Bandit-haunted holds.
