bombardier

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French bombardier (“one in charge of a bombard”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} attested from 1431 for an artillery soldier.^[6] According to the OED, revised in 2025, it is partly also borrowed from Italian bombardiere (“artillery soldier”), recorded from before 1492.^[6] Both are formed from the word for a bombard, Middle French bombarde and Italian bombarda, with the suffixes -ier and -iere.^[6][2][7] The French word, also used of a siege engine for throwing stones (1358) and of a woodwind instrument, is probably from Latin bombus (“a humming noise”),^[6] which Etymonline also gives as the probable source of bomb.^[3] The OED compares Medieval Latin bombardarius, used in British sources from the 15th century.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An artillery soldier in charge of a bombard, an early cannon: 1562, in P. Whitehorne's translation of Machiavelli's Arte of Warre.^[6][2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1550s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th and 18th centuries a bombardier was a soldier who loaded shells, fixed fuses and worked mortars and howitzers,^[3][5] and Johnson (1755) defined him as "the engineer whose employment it is to shoot bombs".^[8] From 1686 the word also named a warship armed with mortars, a bomb-vessel.^[6] In the British army it became the rank of a non-commissioned officer in the Royal Artillery, equal to a corporal, recorded from 1768.^[6][5] From 1773 it named beetles that shoot out a hot, irritating fluid with a popping sound when attacked.^[6][9] With bombing from aircraft it came to mean the member of a bomber crew who aims and releases the bombs, in American English by 1932;^[3] the OED's first record is from 1939, in an El Paso newspaper.^[6] French had the same senses for the beetle (1765) and for a bomber pilot (1937).^[6]

Timeline

• 1562 – an artillery soldier in charge of a bombard.^[6][2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1550s.^[3]
• 1686 – a warship armed with mortars (now historical).^[6]
• 1768 – a non-commissioned officer in the Royal Artillery.^[6]
• 1773 – the bombardier beetle.^[6]
• 1932 – the member of a bomber crew who aims and releases the bombs.^[3] The OED's first record of this sense is from 1939.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The member of a bomber crew who aims and releases the bombs.^[9][2][6]
2. In the British army, a non-commissioned officer in the artillery, below the rank of sergeant.^[9][2][6]
3. A bombardier beetle.^[9][6]
4. (archaic) An artilleryman, originally one in charge of a bombard.^[2][5][6]

Word family

• bombardier beetle

Related words

• bombard
• bomb
• bomber

Usage notes

In Canada Bombardier is a trademark for a snow vehicle with tracks at the rear and skis at the front, named after its Canadian inventor and manufacturer, Armand Bombardier;^[9][10] Dictionary.com dates it to 1945–50.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House