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Glite Dictionary
carabinier

carabinier

9.9
A soldier on horseback who carries a short rifle, often in older armies
  • noun
  • /ˌkærəˈbɪnɪr/
  • Archaic
translation icon : carabinero
  • A regiment of carabiniers charged across the battlefield on horseback.

Examples

  • The museum displayed the uniform of a carabinier from the Napoleonic Wars.

  • In the novel, the protagonist befriends a young carabinier stationed at the frontier.

  • The carabinier patrolled the streets with great vigilance.

  • Many carabiniers served bravely during the war.

  • A regiment of carabiniers charged across the battlefield on horseback.

  • The museum displayed the uniform of a carabinier from the Napoleonic Wars.

  • In the novel, the protagonist befriends a young carabinier stationed at the frontier.

Synonyms

carabineer
vscarabinier
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A soldier who fights on horseback and uses a short rifle

focuses more on being armed primarily with a carbine than unit type
carbineer
vscarabinier
  • Archaic
9.9

A soldier on horseback who carries a short rifle

emphasizes the weapon as the primary feature rather than modern use

Surface Forms

carabinier singular
carabiniers plural

Morphology

carabinier = carbine (semi-transparent) = carabin + ier

The notion 'soldier armed with a carbine' is identifiable from 'carbine', but the form is a direct borrowing with the non-productive suffix '-ier', so the derivation is not fully transparent to an average learner.

Etymology

Carabinier comes from the French and Italian words for the short gun, carbine and carabina. So a carabinier was originally 'a soldier with a carbine', often on horseback, which is why the word means a soldier armed with a 'short gun'.