A brigand is a thief, especially one who works with a group in wild country — mountains, forests, or empty roads — and attacks travellers. It is close to bandit, but brigand has an older, story-book feel. You picture armed men waiting in the hills, not a pickpocket on a city bus. The word came into English from French. A few hundred years ago, French brigand meant a foot soldier; the meaning slid from “armed man on the move” to “armed man who robs you”. Behind that is Italian briga, “trouble” or “bother”. Today English speakers almost never call a real modern criminal a brigand — it would sound like a joke or a history lesson. You find it in novels, in films about the past, and in news writing that wants a colourful word for robbers in remote places. It is not a rude word, but it is literary. Thief, robber, or bandit is what people say in ordinary life.

山賊、盜匪