cannoneer
nounUK /kænəˈnɪə/ · US /ˌkænəˈnɪ(ə)ɹ/
Etymology Borrowed from French canonnier, with the ending reshaped to English -eer (suffix forming agent nouns denoting people associated with, concerned with, or engaged in specified activities). Canonnier is derived from Middle French cannonier, canonnier, from canon (“cannon”) (from cane (from Old French cane (“tube”), from Latin canna (“cane; reed; something resembling a cane”), from Ancient Greek κᾰ́ννᾰ (kắnnă, “giant reed (Arundo donax)”), from Akkadian 𒂵𒉡𒌑𒌝 (qanûm, “reed”)) + -on (augmentative suffix)) + -ier (suffix denoting a profession). By surface analysis, cannon + -eer.
Government, Military, Politics, War An artillery soldier who maintains and operates (historical) a cannon, or (now) some other piece of heavy artillery.
- Luckily, the cannoneer was only mildly injured when his cannon malfunctioned.
- Then ſe the bringing of our ordinance / Along the trench into the battery, / VVhere vve vvil haue gabions of ſix foot broad / To ſaue our Cannoniers from muſket ſhot, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The Second Part […], 2nd edition, part 2, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene i, signature [G6], recto:
3 more examples
- The Irish cannoneers stood gallantly to their pieces till they were cut down to a man.1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 244:
- Just as the spring came laughing through the strife / With all its gorgeous cheer; / In the bright April of historic life / Fell the great cannoneer.1894 (date written), James R[yder] Randall, “John Pelham”, in H. M. Wharton, compiler, War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy 1861–1865 […], Philadelphia, Pa.: International Publishing Co., published 1904, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 326:
- The American cannoneers, normally positioned well behind the front lines, found themselves unexpectedly thrust into a firefight. The cannoneers slammed shell after shell at the big German tanks, but the 105mm high-explosive rounds burst with little effect.2002, Mark J. Reardon, “The Lost Battalion”, in Victory at Mortain: Stopping Hitler’s Panzer Counteroffensive (Modern War Studies), Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, →ISBN, page 156:
- Derived terms
- cannoneering