Word of the day: bushwhacker

The word of the day is bushwhacker:

1. a person or thing that bushwhacks.
2. (in the American Civil War) a guerrilla, especially a Confederate.
3. any guerrilla or outlaw.
4. Australian Slang. an unsophisticated person; hick.

1809, Amer.Eng., lit. "one who beats the bushes" (to make his way through), perhaps modeled on Du. bosch-wachter "forest keeper." In American Civil War, "irregular who took to the woods" (1862), variously regarded as patriot guerillas or as freebooters. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bushwhacker)

"But Zapata and the other chiefs knew that their ill-armed and untried men could not fight pitched battles yet, at Cuautla or any other place, as guerreros (warriors) or guerrilleros (bushwhackers)."

 - John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution