zouave

noun

1. a French soldier in the Union army of the Unites States civil war, or a Union soldier in a French soldier's uniform.

   historical

   The French soldiers, for whom this uniform was patterned and made, were, as a rule, much smaller in stature than the American soldier, and hence the imported zouave uniforms distributed, in many cases, were entirely too short for the many giants in stature in the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Regiment.

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Arabic زَوَاوِيّ (zawāwiyy).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry zouave (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← zooxanthellazugzwang →

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