cateran
/ˈkat(ə)r(ə)n
/noun historical
A warrior or raider from the Scottish Highlands.But despite the commanders, the dukes, marquises knights and princes it is the common cateran who has left his mark....
- How, then, do we account for another footnoted passage, in Chapter 32, referring to the surprise attack by Rob Roy's caterans on the English horsemen under Captain Thornton?
- In 1390, on Robert II's death, Buchan and his caterans burned Forres, and then Elgin burgh and cathedral, in reprisals for Moray's actions.
Origin
Middle English (originally in the plural or as a collective singular denoting the peasantry as fighters): from Scottish Gaelic ceathairne 'peasantry'.