In ancient Greek HOPLITES [3 syllables: hop-plee-tace] meant’ heavily armed warrior’, root word HOPLA ‘arms’. Does Freeper HOPLITE mean this as a translation of Serbo-Croat USTASHA (singular)/USTASHE (plural)?
— I don’t know, but for Freepers who don’t know the language and history here’s the etymology:
-stati means ‘to stand, rise;
-stanem means ‘I stand, rise’;
-ustati means ‘rise up; ustanem ‘I rise up’;
-USTANAK means ‘Rising’;
-USTASA meant ‘rebel’ (oo-stah-shah; plural oo-stah-shay).
Even before the “First Rising” of 1804, Serbs, Christians, had risen several times against the Muslim Turks, who held non-Muslims in slavery. The German scholar Ranke termed the Serb Rising of 1804 a revolution. In an Ustanak the Serb soldiers were Ustashe. Around 1929 the Fuehrer-in-waiting of “Independent” Croatia, Ante Pavelic, wrote of “Hrvatske Ustashe — Croatian Rebels”. Only since the 1930s-1940s is this formulation pleonastic (redundant, tautologous), and today a Serbian Ustasha would be a contradiction. After Croatia’s warm welcoming of Germans to Yugoslavia in 1941, an Ustasha was by default a Croatian fascist soldier, wearing the SS helmet and uniform. — After WW II Ustasha became a term for contemporary Croat chauvinists. After the battle of Vukovar 1991 war criminal Branimir Glavas greeted as proud “Ustashe” his CRO insurrectionist fighters — not soldiers of a sovereign state — who had been captured by the army of the recognized, sovereign Yugoslav state. These wanna-be SS troopers were released on orders of the dimwit US puppet Milan Panic. Another 200 of them ditched their uniforms and tried to pass themselves off as patient in the hospital. They had murdered, often in ritualistic fashion, Serbs, including children. Serb irregulars made these heroes run the gauntlet and shot them. Yugoslav Army officers were arrested by the quisling Serbian government and packed off to the ICTY, the Hague’s delightfully named CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL.
See YouTube http://www.yidio.com/branimir-glavas-—hdz-ustasa/id/2976230262
I guess you missed the Croatian Ustasha of the 19th century in Bosnia-Hercegovina. For instance, the final successful rebellion was started in the Croatian village of Gabela near Capljina in 1875 by Croatian Ustasha and soon spread to neighbouring Serbian villages and towns like Nevesinje.