zouave

plural zouaves

1. historicalgovernmenta French soldier in the Union army of the Unites States civil war, or a Union soldier in a French soldier's uniform.

   I also engaged a French zouave, named Bornet, belonging to the Third Regiment, whose term of service was just out.

   1921, United States Naval Medical Bulletin, volume 15, Washington: United States Navy Government Printing Office, page 154

   2 more examples

   The French soldiers, for whom this uniform was patterned and made, were, as a rule, much smaller in stature than the American soldier, and hence the imported zouave uniforms distributed, in many cases, were entirely too short for the many giants in stature in the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Regiment.

   1910, Under the Maltese Cross, Antietam to Appomattox: The Loyal Uprising in Western Pennsylvania, 1861-1865; Campaigns 155th Pennsylvania Regiment, Pittsburgh, PA: 155th Regimental Association, page 226

   During the Civil War in the United States, some of the Northern Volunteer regiments adpoted ^([sic]) the zouave uniforms and were known as zouaves.

   1918, Grosvenor Library Bulletin, volume 1, number 1, Buffalo, NY: Grosvenor Library, page 19

plural Zouaves

1. historicalgovernmentOne of a body of soldiers in the French service, originally Kabyle, but now composed of Frenchmen who wear the Kabyle dress.
2. broadlyhistoricalgovernmentOne of a body of soldiers who adopt the dress and drill of the Zouaves in French service, as was done by a number of volunteer regiments in the army of the United States in the Civil War (1861–65).