λῃστής

• λᾳστής (lāistḗs) — Doric
• ληϊστής (lēïstḗs) — Ionic

From ληΐς (lēḯs), Epic form of λεία (leía, “plunder, spoils”).

λῃστής • (lēistḗs) m (genitive λῃστοῦ); first declension (Attic)

1. robber, bandit
   • 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 122:

     (Κρέων) λῃστὰς ἔφασκε συντυχόντας οὐ μιᾷ ῥώμῃ κτανεῖν νιν, ἀλλὰ σὺν πλήθει χερῶν.
     (Οἰδίπους) πῶς οὖν ὁ λῃστής, εἴ τι μὴ ξὺν ἀργύρῳ ἐπράσσετ’ ἐνθένδ’, ἐς τόδ’ ἂν τόλμης ἔβη;

     (Kréōn) lēistàs éphaske suntukhóntas ou miâi rhṓmēi ktaneîn nin, allà sùn plḗthei kherôn.
     (Oidípous) pôs oûn ho lēistḗs, eí ti mḕ xùn argúrōi eprásset’ enthénd’, es tód’ àn tólmēs ébē?

     • Translation by Sir Richard Jebb. 1887. @perseus

       (Creon) He said that robbers fell upon them, not one man alone, but with a great force.
       (Oedipus) How then, unless some intrigue had been worked with bribes from here in Thebes, would the robbers have been so bold?

   • 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 535:

     οὗτος σύ, πῶς δεῦρ’ ἦλθες; ἦ τοσόνδ’ ἔχεις / τόλμης πρόσωπον ὥστε τὰς ἐμὰς στέγας / ἵκου, φονεὺς ὢν τοῦδε τἀνδρὸς ἐμφανῶς / λῃστής τ’ ἐναργὴς τῆς ἐμῆς τυραννίδος;

     hoûtos sú, pôs deûr’ êlthes? ê tosónd’ ékheis / tólmēs prósōpon hṓste tàs emàs stégas / híkou, phoneùs ṑn toûde tandròs emphanôs / lēistḗs t’ enargḕs tês emês turannídos?

     • Translation by Sir Richard Jebb. 1887. @perseus

       You, how did you get here? Are you so / boldfaced that you have come to my house, / you who are manifestly the murderer of its master, / the palpable thief of its crown?

2. pirate, buccaneer
3. revolutionary, insurrectionist, guerrilla
4. (figuratively)
   • APl. (Anthology of Planudes).4.198. [Maecius/Maccius]: Μελέαγρος [Meleager]

     σωφροσύνας ὑβριστά, φρενοκλόπε, λῃστὰ λογισμοῦ, πτανὸν πῦρ, ψυχᾶς τραῦμ’ ἀόρατον, Ἔρως

     sōphrosúnas hubristá, phrenoklópe, lēistà logismoû, ptanòn pûr, psukhâs traûm’ aóraton, Érōs

     [you,] insolent of prudence, robber of the mind, pirate of reason, flying fire, invisible trauma of the soul, [you,] Eros

• (robber): κλέπτης m (kléptēs, “thief, cheat”), κλώψ m (klṓps, “thief”)
• (pirate): πειρατής (peiratḗs)

• Greek: ληστής (listís)
• → Arabic: لِصّ (liṣṣ)
• → Aramaic: לִסְטָא (lesṭā) / ܠܣܛܐ (lesṭā)
• → Hebrew: לסטים

• “λῃστής”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “λῃστής”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• λῃστής in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• G3027 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• λῃστής in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • bandit idem, page 61.
  • brigand idem, page 98.
  • buccaneer idem, page 102.
  • corsair idem, page 176.
  • depredator idem, page 213.
  • desperado idem, page 216.
  • filibuster idem, page 319.
  • freebooter idem, page 344.
  • marauder idem, page 513.
  • pirate idem, page 614.
  • plunderer idem, page 622.
  • privateer idem, page 642.
  • ravaged idem, page 674.
  • ravisher idem, page 674.
  • robber idem, page 719.
  • spoiler idem, page 803.