troupe

Etymology

It is borrowed from French troupe (“company, troop”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in French from the 16th century and the same word as Old French trope (13th century),^[3] which English had already borrowed in the 16th century as troop.^[7][2] The Old French word is probably from Late Latin troppus (“flock”), of uncertain origin,^[3] which may itself be Germanic;^[7][2] Etymonline suggests Frankish *throp (“assembly, gathering of people”), perhaps related to Old English þorp and Old Norse þorp, village (English thorp),^[2] and Klein derives it from a Frankish form of the same word with its consonants transposed.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A company or band, especially of performers: 1825, in the New-York Evening Post;^[3] Barnhart and Dictionary.com mark it as an Americanism.^[9][10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun to 1776.^[11]

Semantic evolution

English already had troop from the same French word, and took troupe again in the 19th century for companies of actors, dancers and the like.^[7][3] The verb, to travel with a troupe or perform as one of its members, dates from 1851,^[11] and trouper, a member of a troupe, from 1890;^[9][3][2] trouper later also meant a reliable person who carries on without complaint, by 1942 in Etymonline or 1959 in the OED.^[2][3] In American underworld slang of the 1930s a troupe was a gang of pickpockets or other thieves who worked together.^[12]

Timeline

• 1825 – a company of performers.^[3] Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1776.^[11]
• 1851 – verb, to travel or perform with a troupe.^[11]
• 1890 – trouper, a member of a troupe.^[3][9]
• 1930s – US underworld slang, a gang of thieves.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A company of actors, dancers or other performers, especially one that travels: a troupe of jugglers.^[13][11][4]

Verb

1. To travel or perform as a member of a troupe.^[11][13]

Word family

• trouper

Related words

• trooper
• troop
• thorp

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins