pandourn.

Etymology: Partly < French pandour member of an irregular militia in Hungary (1664), and partly < German Pandur (1745), both < Hungarian pandúr infantryman (1602), gangster, local policeman (the only current sense), further etymology uncertain; probably < a Slavonic base meaning ‘one who drives away’ seen also in Croatian pudar guard, especially of vineyards). Use in German and English was reinforced by Serbian and Croatian pandur (in historical usage) bailiff, beadle, summoner, mounted policeman or guardian of the public peace, having also in earlier times the duty of guarding the frontier districts from the inroads of the Turks, (now) village watchman or constable, (colloquial and slang) officious person, policeman (itself reborrowed < Hungarian).The word pandur , with all or some of the senses mentioned, is found in nearly all the South Slavonic languages and in some other branches of Slavonic in historical usage: compare (in South Slavonic) Bulgarian pandur , pandurin policeman under the Ottoman Empire, (in West Slavonic) Czech pandur , bandur member of a Croatian militia. In the Balkan area outside Slavonic it is also found in Romanian pandur and Ottoman Turkish pandur , pandor rural watchman. Earlier forms with initial b are found in Hungarian, Croatian, and Czech; bandur is apparently still in Croatian regional usage. The word is not native to Hungarian, and its further etymology is uncertain. The earlier and regional forms in band- , as well as (current) Hungarian bandérium mounted escort, suggest that it is < or influenced by post-classical Latin banderius , variant of bannerius , originally ‘a follower of a standard or banner’ (11th cent.; < bandum , bannum standard: see banner n.¹), or an Italian or Italian regional word related to this (compare Italian banditore market crier, herald (1272)); there is evidence that in Dalmatia the Croatian form bandur arose as a result of confusing the native pudar with Italian forms in band- . Among senses evidenced by Du Cange for post-classical Latin banerius , bannerius are those of ‘guard of cornfields and vineyards’ (also banderius ) and also ‘summoner, apparitor’, the former being a sense of Serbian and Croatian pudar and the latter of pandur . However, both these words can be satisfactorily derived from common Slavonic *pǫditi to drive away. The word was previously thought to be derived < the name of Pandur or Pandur Puszta , a village in Hungary, but this has now been shown to be unlikely. The sense in which the word became known in Western Europe is involved in the history of Trenck's body of pandours; compare quot. 1747 at sense 1a. With sense 2 compare Dutch pandoer (1897 or earlier in this sense).