somatenn.
/səʊməˈtɛn//səʊˈmɑːtɛn/ In Catalonia, a body of civilians armed for the protection of a town or district; a member of this body.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > branch of army > [noun] > home-defence troops > foreign
somaten1845
Heimwehr1931
1845 R. Ford Hand-bk. Travellers in Spain I. vi. 493 Thus time was given for the somaten, or tocsin, to be rung, and the armed peasantry collected... The Catalan guerrilleros were called Somatenes, from this bell.
1905 R. Thirlmere Lett. from Catalonia I. v. 60 In Olot and other Catalan towns they have what they call El Somaten, an armed, local, volunteer force—which closes all the highways at the sound of an alarm bell.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 566/2 Miquelets..were irregular local troops in Catalonia... They were maintained by the several parishes..and as they had to turn out for duty on sound of the village alarm-bell (somaten) they are frequently called somatenes.
1929 A. F. G. Bell in E. A. Peers Spain 275 A more efficient city-police, together with the Somatenes and the Civil Guard, maintained order throughout Spain.
Derivatives
soˈmatenist n. [Catalan somatenista] a member of a somaten.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier by type of service > [noun] > militiaman > specific
miquelet1670
minuteman1774
landwehr man1866
khassadar1901
somatenist1928
requeté1936
miliciano1938
militiaman1939
Basij1982
Basiji1982
1928 Daily Tel. 29 May 9/5 A member of the ‘Somaten’ (Militia) to-day succeeded in finding the young man who ran amok with a rifle last Monday... As he refused to surrender the ‘Somatenist’ fired and killed him.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online December 2018).
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n.1845