mousquetaire

musketeer

noun moos-kuh-TEHR Rare

Usage Note

Mousquetaire referred historically to a soldier armed with a mousquet (musket), and later to elite French royal guards. Alexandre Dumas immortalised them in Les Trois Mousquetaires. The nickname later honoured the Quatre Mousquetaires, France's dominant tennis players of the 1920s, after whom the Roland-Garros men's trophy, the Coupe des Mousquetaires, is named.

Examples

"Les trois mousquetaires défendaient le roi."

Natural Translation

The three musketeers defended the king.

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