zouave

/zuːˈɑːv/

Etymology

From French, from Arabic زَوَاوِيّ (zawāwiyy), used to refer to a Kabyle soldier, especially of the Igawawen people.

Why this word is great

ZOUAVE — [Noun] A soldier in the French service, originally Kabyle but later composed of Frenchmen, or a soldier in other armies adopting the dress and drill of the French Zouaves. From French Zouave, from Arabic زَوَاوِيّ (zawāwiyy), referring to a Kabyle soldier, especially of the Igawawen people. Unlike "chasseur" (a French light infantryman unburdened by exoticism) or "bersaglieri" (Italian sharpshooters prized for function over form), the Zouave was spectacle as much as soldier: his baggy red trousers, his braided vest, his tasseled fez. He was the colonial fantasy made flesh—the fierce Kabyle warrior refashioned into a Parisian poster boy, the North African sun sewn into European uniforms, the brutal efficiency of war dressed in the gaudy costume of empire. A relic of an age when armies still believed in the theater of conquest.

noun

One of a body of soldiers in the French service, originally Kabyle, but now composed of Frenchmen who wear the Kabyle dress.
One of a body of soldiers who adopt the dress and drill of the Zouaves in French service, as was done by a number of volunteer regiments in the army of the United States in the Civil War (1861–65).
a French soldier in the Union army of the Unites States civil war, or a Union soldier in a French soldier's uniform.“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.”