lancepesadelanceprisadon.

Etymology: < French lancepessade (now anspessade ) ‘lancepesado, the meanest officer in a foot-company’ (Cotgrave), < Italian lancia spezzata , lit. ‘broken lance’ (spezzare to break in pieces, ‘dispiece’, < s- = dis- + pezza piece). For the quasi-Spanish ending of some forms see -ado suffix; the forms with r are due to association with Spanish presa grip, clutch. The Italian word is recorded only in the senses ‘one of a prince's bodyguard’ and (in plural) ‘soldiers of a superior class not included in the ordinary companies’; Florio (s.v. Spezzato) renders it ‘a demi-lance, light horseman’; Italian etymologists suggest that the primary sense was ‘one whose lance has often been shivered in warfare, one who has seen much service’ (Tommaseo s.v. Spezzato). The peculiar French and English sense (= lance-corporal) can be accounted for only conjecturally, but it may have arisen from the practice of appointing specially experienced privates, in emergencies, to act as officers of the lowest rank. The form lanspasata in quot. 1687 at sense b may be a corrupt Italian form.