History of The Word
The word pioneer is originally from France.
The word (French: pionnier) was borrowed into English, from Old French pionnier, which meant a "foot soldier", from the root 'peon' recorded in 1523. It was used in a military sense as early as 1626–1627. In the late 18th century Captain George Smith defined the term as:
PIONEERS, in war-time, are such as are commanded in from the country, to march with an army, for mending the ways, for working on entrenchments, fortifications, and for making mines and approaches: the soldiers are likewise employed in all these things. Most of the foreign regiments of artillery have half a company of pioneers, well instructed in that important branch of duty. Our regiments of infantry and cavalry have 3 or 4 pioneers each, provided with aprons, hatchets, saws, spades, and pick-axes.
Read more about this topic: Pioneer (military)
Famous quotes containing the words the word, history of, history and/or word:
“Please stop using the word “Negro.”... We are the only human beings in the world with fifty-seven variety of complexions who are classed together as a single racial unit. Therefore, we are really truly colored people, and that is the only name in the English language which accurately describes us.”
—Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)
“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.”
—Lytton Strachey (1880–1932)
“The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)