“Kleptomania” and “kleptocracy” come from the same Greek word, kléptein, “to steal.” Another descendant of kléptein is Kléftis.
In modern Greek, Kléftis were highwaymen turned self-appointed anti-Ottoman insurgents. They were descendants of Greeks who retreated into the mountains during the 1400s after the Ottomans conquered the Greek-speaking world, and they maintained a war of harassment against the Ottomans until the 1800s and Greek’s independence. Being an insurgent was a family tradition!
