lansquenet
(ˈlɑːnskənɛt, ˈlæns-)
Forms: 7 lancequene(n)t, lansquenight, 7–8 lanskenet, 8 landsquenet, (sense 2 only, lamb-skin-it, lambskinnet), 7, 9 lansquenett(e, 9 (sense 2) lansquinnet, 7– lansquenet. β. (sense 1 only) 9- (now usual) landsknecht, 9 lanzknecht. See also lance-knight.
[a. F. lansquenet, ad. G. landsknecht lit. servant of the country, f. lands (gen.) country + knecht servant. The Ger. word was at an early date miswritten lanzknecht, as if f. lanz lance.]
1. Hist. One of a class of mercenary soldiers in the German and other continental armies in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Originally applied to the serfs brought into the field by the nobles within the territories of the Empire, in contradistinction to the Swiss mercenaries. Subsequently this distinction became obsolete, and the designation seems to have connoted a particular kind of equipment, of which a lance was part.
| 1607 Dekker Knight's Conjuring (Percy) 59 Our lansquenight of Lowe-Germanie. 1608 E. Grimstone Hist. France (1611) 662 Christopher..brought ten thousand Lansquenets to passe the Alpes. 1622 A. Court Constancie i. 8 Certaine Women..cryed out,..That the Lanskenets had eaten vp Children. 1726–31 Tindal Rapin's Hist. Eng. xvii. (1743) II. 138 Ten thousand Switzers, two thousand Landsquenets. 1824 Byron Def. Transf. i. ii, From some Stray bullet of our lansquenets. 1845 S. Austin tr. Ranke's Hist. Ref. I. 235 In the year 1513, the authorities hesitated to punish some deserters from the Landsknechts. 1855 Motley Dutch Rep. ii. ii. (1866) 163 Some were disguised as hussars, some as miners, some as lansquenettes. 1884 Contemp. Rev. June 818 He gave up entire communes to be pillaged by the lansquenets. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 521/1 The Landsknecht was the prototype of the infantryman of the 16th and 17th centuries. 1936 Burlington Mag. June 294/1 Among the daggers is an elaborate landsknecht one in its sheath. 1944 Auden Sea & Mirror in For Time Being iii. 56 Our moth-eaten..stock costumes which with only a change of hat and re-arrangement of safety-pins, had to do for the landsknecht and the Parisian art-student. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. I. 610 (caption) Landsknecht sword, first half 16th century. |
(β) In the incorrect Ger. form lanzknecht.
| 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. I. 240 If..his German lanzknechts had stormed the Holy City. |
2. A game at cards, of German origin.
| 1687 Lond. Gaz. No. 2263/3 Strictly forbidding all Persons..to use or allow any Gaming in their Houses, more particularly the Games of Hoca, Bassett, or Lansquenett. 1707 J. Stevens Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 204 We play'd at Lanskenet. 1735 Bailey, Lamb Skin-it, a certain Game at Cards. 1766 Anstey Bath Guide ix. (1804) 72 And to play I bid adieu, Hazard, lansquenet, and loo, Fairest nymph, to dance with you. 1859 Thackeray Virgin. xli, He dines at White's ordinary, and sits down to Macco and lansquenet afterwards. 1885 Mabel Collins Prettiest Woman vi, Each day she dreaded to hear that he had lost everything at lansquenet. 1917 ‘H. H. Richardson’ Fortunes Richard Mahony 9 Even the ‘shepherds’ beguiled the time with euchre and ‘lambskinnet’. |