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Glite Dictionary
fusilier

fusilier

3 9.9
A British soldier from the past who carried a light musket
  • noun
  • /ˌfjʊzɪˈlɪə/
  • Archaic
translation icon : fusilero
  • Historically, a fusilier was known for fighting with a flintlock musket in the British army.
  • fusilier battalion
  • Royal Fusiliers
  • Lancashire Fusiliers

There was frost in the ground when the tigers broke free and no one survived from the Royal Fusilier's companies.

Examples

  • No, he was in the Fusiliers, he fought at Dunkirk.

    Lancaster Skies (2019)

  • "But the Fusiliers will never forget," she said quietly.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • From the Royal Fusiliers Company C.

    Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)

  • I can't expect you to understand this, but these men belong to the ninth fusiliers.

    Von Ryan's Express (1965)

  • They married while he was at Oxford, but immediately on graduation, in 1915, he took up a commission in the Lancashire Fusiliers.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • "Corporal John Smalley, Her Britannic Majesty's London Fusiliers," he said.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • On the outbreak of war, he volunteered for service and was appointed chaplain to the Royal Munster Fusiliers, serving in Western France.

    Blog text (22)

  • And she's oftentimes been seen sleigh riding with Captain John Andre of the Royal Fusiliers.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Major Sylvester Pennington Sloane of Her Majesty's 42nd Highland Fusiliers, retired.

    Arabesque (1966)

  • The soldier proudly wore the uniform of a fusilier during the ceremony.

Synonyms

musketeer
vsfusilier
  • Archaic
81 9.0

A soldier in the past who used a long gun to fight

is specifically British and tied to a regiment originally equipped with light flintlocks
footslogger
vsfusilier
  • Archaic
9.9

A soldier who fights on foot, marching long distances with a heavy pack and gun

is a regimental soldier defined by a specific light flintlock musket

Surface Forms

fusilier singular
fusiliers plural

Morphology

fusilier = fusil (opaque) = fusil + ier

Although analyzable as fusil + -ier historically, the root 'fusil' and the agent-forming suffix '-ier' are not familiar or productive for most learners, so the meaning is not reliably inferable.

Etymology

Fusilier comes from the French fusil, which means a 'small gun' or 'flintlock', and that word came from an old word for 'spindle' because the gun looked long and spindle-like. So a fusilier was originally a soldier who carried a fusil, which is why the name means that kind of soldier.