Scrabble?! CONDOTTIERE

Definitions of CONDOTTIERE in various dictionaries:

Condottieri (Italian: [kondotˈtjɛːri]; singular condottiero and condottiere) were the leaders of the professional military free companies (or mercenaries) contracted by the Italian city-states and the Papacy from the late Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance. In Renaissance Italian, condottiero meant "contractor". In Italian historiography, Renaissance mercenary captains are usually called capitani di ventura (literally "venture captains") as the term "Condottiero" acquired the broader meaning of "military leader", thus including notable Italian generals fighting for the Catholic side during the European Wars of Religion such as Alexander Farnese, Ambrogio Spinola, Torquato Conti, Raimondo Montecuccoli and Ottavio Piccolomini.The word condottiere in the English language has come to denote, in the modern sense, any hired soldier.