Now chiefly Hist. Also 7 trabanto, travant, 7–8 traband. [a. Ger. trabant a life-guard, an armed attendant, a satellite (also in Astron.), in It. trabante, F. traban, Boh. drabanti; of Turkish (orig. Pers.) origin: see DRABANT.] In some European countries, a life-guard, an armed attendant, a satellite.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 188. He [the Emperor] had one hundred for his Guard, (called Trabantoes)…. Ten Hascheres and twelue Trabantoes attended each day.
a. 1634. Chapman, Alphonsus, III. F iv b. Six travants well arm’d.
1693. Lond. Gaz., No. 2845/2. Thus they went through several stately Rooms, having the Trabands on each side of them.
1762. trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., V. 317. The fifty halberdeers and the fifty trabands or horse-guards here being rather instituted for the splendor of the court than the military establishment.
1904. Daily Chron., 15 Dec., 1/7. It was announced that the President [of the Hungarian Chamber] … would not appear, and that the guard of ‘Trabants’ had been removed.
