Guerilla Etymology

Guerrilla (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡeˈriʎa]) is the diminutive of the Spanish word guerra "war", literally "little war". It derives from the Old High German word Werra or from the middle Dutch word warre; adopted by the Visigoths in A.D. 5th century Hispania.

In War and Peace (written in 1865-1869, in part about Napoleon's invasion of Russia), Leo Tolstoy says that guerrilla warfare is named after the Guerrillas in Spain. He appears to be referring to a specific group that used guerrilla warfare in a war fought in Spain before the 1860s. That war began in 1808 with the occupation of Spain by Napoleon's French army. Bands of guerrillas (so named; one of the most important led by Juan Martin Diez) and the regular Spanish army both fought Napoleon. Our modern word "guerrilla" traces its origin to these bands in this war. These guerrillas were very effective in fighting Napoleon. Their principal function was to disrupt the supply and communication lines of the French army by intercepting messages and by seizing convoys of supplies, arms, and money. They did so much damage to Napoleon's army that Joseph Leopold Hugo, a French general, was ordered to "pursue exclusively" Diez and his guerrillas. According to Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the word "guerrilla" was first used as a noun in 1809 and as an adjective in 1811.

Guerrillero is the Spanish word for guerrilla fighter, while in Spanish-speaking countries the noun guerrilla usually denotes guerrilla army (e.g. la guerrilla de las FARC translates as "the FARC guerrilla group"). Moreover the term guerrilla' was used within the English language as early as 1809. The word was used to describe the fighters, and their tactics (e.g."the town was taken by the guerrillas"). However, in most languages guerrilla still denotes the specific style of warfare. The use of the diminutive evokes the differences in number, scale, and scope between the guerrilla army and the formal, professional army of the state.

An early example of this came when General John Burgoyne who, during the Saratoga campaign of the American War of Independence, noted that, in proceeding through dense woodland:

‘The enemy is infinitely inferior to the King’s Troop in open space, and hardy combat, is well fitted by disposition and practice, for the stratagems of enterprises of Little War...upon the same principle must be a constant rule, in or near woods to place advanced sentries, where they may have a tree or some other defence to prevent their being taken off by a single marksman.'

So conscious of hidden marksmen was Burgoyne that he asked his men, ‘When the Lieutenant General visits an outpost, the men are not to stand to their Arms or pay him any compliment, clearly aware he would be singled out.