trooper

Etymology

It is formed from English troop + -er.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Troop comes from French troupe, from trope (“band of people, company, troop”),^[3][2] probably from Late Latin troppus (“flock”), whose further origin is uncertain;^[2][7] Etymonline also considers a Germanic source.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A soldier in a troop of cavalry, a horse soldier: 1640, in the records of the War Committee of the Covenanters.^[2][8] The OED notes that the term was used in connection with the Covenanting army that invaded England.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the same year, 1640, a trooper was also the horse a trooper rode.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a horse soldier and distinguished it from a dragoon, who marched on horseback but could fight on horseback or on foot.^[6] Troopers had a reputation for coarse language and behaviour, hence the phrase to swear like a trooper;^[10] the OED's first record is in Richardson's Pamela (1740),^[2] but Tréguer finds it in Addison's Guardian in 1713.^[10] In thieves' cant a trooper was a half-crown, from the end of the 17th century to the mid 19th,^[11][2] and in 17th-century slang it could also mean a prostitute.^[11] The word passed to the police: in Australia a mounted police officer was a trooper from 1830 in the OED,^[2] 1858 in Etymonline and Morris,^[3][12] and in the United States a state trooper was a member of a state police force from 1911, first in Pennsylvania.^[2][3] It was also used for a troopship (1872) and a paratrooper (1942).^[2] From 1951 a trooper was also a brave or stalwart person,^[2][13] a use that overlaps with trouper, a seasoned actor.^[11][13]

Timeline

• 1640 – a cavalry soldier; a cavalry horse.^[2][8]
• 1654 – slang, a prostitute.^[11]
• 1699 – cant, a half-crown (now obsolete).^[2][11]
• 1713 – swear like a trooper, according to Tréguer.^[10]
• 1740 – swear like a trooper, the OED's first record.^[2]
• 1830 – in Australia, a mounted police officer.^[2]
• 1872 – a troopship.^[2]
• 1911 – US, a state police officer.^[2][3]
• 1942 – a paratrooper.^[2]
• 1951 – a brave or stalwart person.^[2][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soldier in a cavalry or armoured unit, especially one of the lowest rank.^[14][8][4]
2. (US) A member of a state police force; a state trooper: A trooper pulled the van over on the interstate.^[14][8][2]
3. (chiefly US and Australia) A mounted police officer.^[14][8][2]
4. A cavalry horse.^[14][8][2]
5. A paratrooper.^[8][2][4]
6. (chiefly British) A troopship.^[14][8][2]
7. (informal) A person who keeps going without complaint; also used for trouper.^[2][13][15]
8. swear like a trooper: to swear a lot and forcefully.^[4][2][15]
9. (obsolete, cant) A half-crown.^[2][11]

Word family

• paratrooper
• moss-trooper
• storm trooper

Related words

• trouper
• troop
• troupe

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster and the Australian and New Zealand Oxford dictionaries record trooper as a spelling of trouper in the sense of a person who carries on stoically.^[16][15][17] Wiktionary treats this as a misspelling that has almost replaced trouper in that sense, and notes that like a trouper is recorded from 1933, which shows the phrase comes from the theatrical word.^[18]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Tréguer, Pascal, Word Histories, wordhistories.net, p. "‘to swear like a trooper’: meaning and origin", 13 March 2023
11. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
13. ^ a b c d Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press
18. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House