Re: Polish medieval terminology

Quoting Josh Brandt-Young <vionau@...>:

> Quoth Mike Ellis:
>
> >> 2. What on Earth is a "landsknecht?"
> >
> > I don't know anything about Polish, but that word looks German. So
> > I looked it up in a German dictionary. I got "farmhand". Does that
> > make sense? Might be a borrowed German word.
>
> I'm sure it *is* borrowed from German, but "farmhard" doesn't quite work
> with the context--the text goes "Our department store received four hundred
> hauberks, the 16th century model, used in their time by landsknechts." I
> wonder if it's a term for one of the feudal levels? Eastern European
> history specialists, help! :)
The German word <Knecht> originally meant something neutral like
"servant", and is cognate with the English word <knight>.  The two
words parted ways, however, semantically, as <Knecht> now has the
connotation of a kind of menial servant, precisely the opposite of
the English development.  My guess is that the word refers to some
kind of relatively lower-level infantrymen, based on the context
(the use of hauberks were for infantry defensive gear) and the
fact that Polish probably borrowed the word after its pejorative
shift (what is now eastern Germany did not begin German-speaking until
considerably late; Berlin was originally a Slavic settlement).

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