Crossword clues for zouave
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Zouave \Zouave\ (?; 277), n. [F., fr. Ar. Zouaoua a tribe of Kabyles living among the Jurjura mountains in Algeria.] (Mil.)
One of an active and hardy body of soldiers in the French service, originally Arabs, but now composed of Frenchmen who wear the Arab dress.
Hence, one of a body of soldiers who adopt the dress and drill of the Zouaves, as was done by a number of volunteer regiments in the army of the United States in the Civil War, 1861-65.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
member of a French light infantry troop, 1848, from French, from Arabic Zwawa, from Berber Igawawaen, name of a Kabyle tribe in Algeria, from which the zouaves originally were recruited in 1831. The military units soon became exclusively French but served only in Algeria until 1854 and were "distinguished for their dash, intrepidity, and hardihood, and for their peculiar drill and showy Oriental uniform" [Century Dictionary]. Some Northern regiments in the American Civil War adopted the name and elements of the uniform. The women's fashionable zouave jacket (1859) also is based on the uniform.
Wikipedia
The Zouaves were a group of prestigious light infantry regiments linked to French North Africa between 1830 and 1962, as well as some units of other countries modelled upon them. The zouaves, along with the indigenous Tirailleurs Algeriens, were among the most decorated units of the French Army.
It was initially intended in 1830 that the zouaves be a regiment of Berber volunteers from the Zwawa group of tribes in Algeria (thus the French term 'zouave') who had gained a martial reputation fighting for the Ottomans. The regiment was to consist of sixteen hundred Zwawa Berbers, French NCOs and French officers. Five hundred Zwawa were recruited in August and September, but to raise numbers to the desired sixteen hundred, it was decided that the pool of recruits should be expanded to volunteers of any ethnicity, so the first zouave regiment was a mixture of Berber, Arab, European and black volunteers. Twelve years later, zouaves began to be recruited exclusively from Europeans, a policy which continued (with the exception of the Second World War) until their final dissolution after the independence of Algeria.
In the 1860s, new units in several other countries called themselves "Zouaves". The Papal Zouaves were organized by General de La Moricière, a former commander of North African zouaves, while a former zouave sergeant, François Rochebrune, organized the Polish "Zouaves of Death" who fought against Russia in 1863-64. In the 1870s, former Papal zouaves formed the cadre for a short-lived Spanish zouave unit. The "zouave" title was also used by Brazilian units of black volunteers in the Paraguayan War, possibly due to a perceived link with Africa.
In the United States, zouaves were brought to public attention by Elmer E. Ellsworth, who ran a drill company called the "Zouave Cadets". The drill company toured nationally. "Zouave" units were then raised on both sides of the American Civil War of 1861-5, including a regiment under Ellsworth's command, the New York "Fire Zouaves".
The distinctive uniforms of zouave units tended to include short open-fronted jackets, baggy trousers ( serouel), sashes and oriental head gear.
Usage examples of "zouave".
Guayra, will find, as Leigh found, that their coming has been expected, and that the Pass of the Venta, three thousand feet above, has been fortified with huge barricadoes, abattis, and cannon, making the capital, amid its ring of mountain-walls, impregnable--to all but Englishmen or Zouaves.
The Zouaves, flushed with success, attempted to carry the Round Tower with a rush, and swept up to the abattis surrounding it.
The Jewess still danced upon the roof to the watching Zouaves, but now there was something mystic in her tiny movements which no longer roused in Domini any furtive desire not really inherent in her nature.
The pride of the Garibaldian was not far behind the generosity of the former zouave.
Zouaves stood under the palms, staring calmly at the morning, their sunburned hands loosely clasped upon muskets whose butts rested in the sand.
The Zouave, wholly careless or unconscious of the fact that he was an incarnation of Africa to these raw peasants, who had never before stirred beyond the provinces where they were born, went on taking the tickets, and tossing the woollen rugs to the passing figures, and pointing ferociously to the gangway.
He had been a sublieutenant in the Zouaves, was tall and thin and as hard as steel, and during the whole campaign he had cut out their work for the Germans.
There were members of Zouave regiments, wearing baggy breeches of various hues, gaiters, crimson fezes, and profusely braided jackets.
She has had the assurance to modify the dress I put upon her, and was herself a butterfly: for, instead of the shintiyan, she had on baggy pantaloons of azure silk, a zouave of saffron satin hardly reaching to the waist, no feredjé, but a fez with violet tassel, her plait quite tidy, but her forehead-hair wanton, the fez cocked backward, while I got glimpses of her careening heels lifting out of the dropping slipper-sole and she is pretty clever, but not clever enough, for that butterfly escaped.
The day before, some battalions of Zouaves from Algiers had disembarked in order to reinforce the army on the frontier, and these veterans, accustomed to colonial existence and undiscriminating as to the cause of disturbances, seized the opportunity to intervene in this manifestation, some with bayonets and others with ungirded belts.