Definitions
Sorry, no definitions found. Check out and contribute to the discussion of this word!
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word swartrutter.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
AnWulf commented on the word swartrutter
***A mercenary who would often dress in all black and blacken his face. From Dutch swartrutter or swartruiter (black rider) mightly from German schwarze rotte (black gang).
Swartrutters were groups of men who wore black clothes and blackened their faces. These gangs were a threatening presence in the Netherlands during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. — "African American Slave Narratives: An Anthology" , Sterling Lecater Bland, 2001
April 13, 2013