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From: davidd02@tpg.com.au (David Duffy)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Archaic words
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2024 04:09:11 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:
> On 2024-08-11, Michael F. Stemper <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I'm reading Fletcher Pratt's _The Well of the Unicorn_, and have
>> stumbled over "deserion", "deese", and "tercia". From context, I
>> think that all of them are military terms. Maybe
> 
> tercio  or  tercia : a Spanish or Italian infantry regiment of the
> 16th and 17th century

Yes, 300 men strong. And a deese is most likely a platoon of, I guess,
10 (dix) led by a serjeant (the deserion, which I would gloss as "of
service", as in sergeant), who owes feudal loyalty to a Count. In the case
of Luronne, he is "a very good reasoner...[who] has had the instruction
of the Lyceum of Anne", and Morarday is "captain and deserion to the
Viscount..a Vulking of the war service".

Cheers, David Duffy (who kept getting the Deserion Griffin cartoon)