# Technical term for members of a militia?



## Bearman1 (Jul 9, 2014)

So I have some characters who are part of a militia in a small town, but I have no name for them individually.

Up til now I have been calling them soldiers and/or militiamen but neither seems like the right name. 

Does anyone know the correct term for individuals in a medieval militia?

Thanks!


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## peteks (Jul 9, 2014)

I'd probably call them conscriptsmen or something like that. Or levyman.


Just my 2 cents though.


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## Trick (Jul 9, 2014)

They would technically be called militiamen. You could call them citizen-soldiers but that seems clunky.


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## thecoldembrace (Jul 9, 2014)

I would not call them levymen. Levies were armed by the state, same thing with the levies as they were generally conscripts. Depending on the militia it could be a mercenary militia, so mercenaries, or loyalist militia, so loyalists. 

Yet, generally militias were made up of militiamen, that is the most common usage. You could also probably get away with partisans, even though the term was not developed until the 17th century. (Partisan person not the partisan polearm.) 

-Cold


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## Steerpike (Jul 9, 2014)

Yeah militiamen is the right word. You can speak in terms of conscripts, but there is nothing in the OP to indicate they were conscripted.

Maybe you could give the militia a name.


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## skip.knox (Jul 9, 2014)

A perfectly reasonable word would be citizen. I'm thinking specifically of Italian city-states here (and German ones). 

Why not just call them soldiers and be done with it? If the story needs to emphasize their militia-ness, there are other ways to do that. Inventing an example here, if they have been foisted upon professional soldiers, you could have the pros refer to them as farmers, or grocers, or some other insulting, non-military name.


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## Bearman1 (Jul 10, 2014)

Think I'm going to stick with militiamen as that is a correct term. Well militiamen will be what others refer to them as. 

They will be calling themselves soldiers until they realise how outclassed they actually are compared with actual trained soldiers. 

Thanks a lot for your help everyone


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