大约在公元1400年，brigaunt（意为“轻装武装的非正规步兵”）一词出现，源自14世纪的古法语brigand，而该词又源自意大利语brigante，意为“骑兵、游击队员、步兵”。其词根brigare意为“争斗、打斗”（可以参见brigade）。在英语中，这个词最早的含义是“强盗、劫掠者、以掠夺为生的人”，大约在14世纪晚期。这反映了当时职业雇佣军与武装犯罪团伙之间界限模糊的现实。
Probably then it was in the sense of skirmishers that the name of brigand was given to certain light-armed foot-soldiers, frequently mentioned by Froissart and his contemporaries. ... The passage from the sense of a light-armed soldier to that of a man pillaging on his own account, is easily understood. [Hensleigh Wedgwood, "A Dictionary of English Etymology," 1859]
很可能，brigand这个名字最初是用来指代某些轻装步兵的，这些士兵常常被弗罗伊萨特及其 contemporaries 提到。……从轻装士兵到独自掠夺者的意义转变，是很容易理解的。[亨斯利·韦奇伍德，《英语词源词典》，1859年]
