sb. and a. Also 6–7 veterane, 7 -ant, veterean. [a. older F. veteran (F. vétéran, = It., Sp., Pg. veterano), or ad. L. veterānus, f. veter-, vetus old.]
A. sb. 1. One who has had long experience in military service; an old soldier.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., xxvii. (Percy Soc.), 132. The sturdy knight well named Fortitude. With the noble veterane syr Consuetude.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Vocab., Veterans, old soldiers.
1700. Astry, trans. Saavedra-Faxardo, II. 248. Even Veterans, who had never kept Guard.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 8, ¶ 9. A sound that will force the bravest veteran to drop his weapon, and desert his rank.
1769. Junius Lett., xxxiv. (1788), 170. Military governments, which were intended for the support of worn-out veterans.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, IV. xix. Veterans of early fields were there, Whose helmets press’d their hoary hair.
1843. Prescott, Mexico, III. ix. (1864), 190. Then came the Spanish infantry, who in a summer’s campaign had acquired the discipline and the weather-beaten aspect of veterans.
1882. Rhys, Celtic Britain, iii. 80. Ostorius establishes a strong colony of veterans at Camulodunon.
2. One who has seen long service in any office or position; an experienced or aged person.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xlii. § 5. The Arrians for the credit of their faction take the eldest, the best experienced, the most wary and the longest practised Veterans they had amongst them.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., ii. 34. A sturdy veteran in roguery.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, II. ii. 152. The servants were all veterans, gorgeous in their liveries.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, II. vi. Miss Fanny … said the usual nothings with the skill of a veteran.
transf. 1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), III. 22. The new backely [South African ox] is then joined with one of the veterans of his own kind, from whom he learns his art.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sci., I. 422. Sending into the field a reserve of new physical reasonings on the rout and dispersion of the veterans.
Comb. 1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (1902), 95/1. Several of the adjacent veteran-looking trees.
B. adj. 1. Of soldiers: Having much experience in warfare or military matters; long practised or exercised in war.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xvi. 2. Veterant Souldiers, most of which were of skill sufficient to be Commanders themselues.
1652. Earl Monm., trans. Bentivoglio’s Hist. Relat., 170. The Veteran Souldiery of the United Provinces.
1686. trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 55. The veterane Janizaries were all either slain or dead.
1759. in 10th Reg. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 316. So much has the present War drain’d them of their Veteran Troops.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xviii. (1787), II. 121. The loss of a veteran army, sufficient to defend the frontiers.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., xxxiii. Here report said, that Adrian de Bubenberg, a veteran knight of Berne, commanded.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iv. I. 460. His professional skill commanded the respect of veteran officers.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Courage, Wks. (Bohn), III. 108. It is the veteran soldier, who, seeing the flash of the cannon, can step aside from the path of the ball.
2. Of persons in general: Grown old in service; experienced by long usage or practice.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., A Veteran Counsellor has a Voice and Seat at Audiences.
1789. Belsham, Ess., II. xl. 502. Did it never occur to this veteran politician that there are degrees of misconduct?
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 528. The veteran English author was not slow to reply.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 255. Godolphin had … early acquired all the flexibility and the self-possession of a veteran courtier.
1878. Atchison (KS) Daily Champion, 1 Aug., 2/4. Among this element was G. W. Brown, of the Herald of Freedom, who treated the effort of organizing the new party, as it then was, with a warmth more worthy of a veteran slave driver than one who had suffered so much for free Kansas.
1883. B. Smith, Life Ld. Lawrence, II. xxviii. 532. The veteran Viceroy walked round to the sacred spot.
transf. 1847. Stoddart, Angler’s Comp., 250. Give me … the rush of some veteran water-monarch, or the gambol … of a plump new-run grilse.
3. Of things: Old; long-continued. rare.
1653. Gauden, Hierasp., 44. Our old bottels and veterane Wines … are sound, sweet, well-refined, and full of spirits.
1710. Prideaux, Orig. Tithes, iv. 208. The payment of Tithes was grown to be a Veteran and thorough settled Constitution of this Kingdom.
1832. Longf., Coplas de Manrique, lxvi. By great And veteran service to the state,… He stood … The proudest knight of chivalry.
Hence Veterancy, the state or condition of being a veteran. Veteraness, a female veteran. Veteranize v. U.S. a. trans. To render a veteran. b. intr. To re-enlist as a soldier.
1832. Evening Post (N.Y.), 23 Nov., 2/5. We find young men who have no title of *veterancy to such distinctions.
1902. Daily Chron., 23 July, 3/3. This cricketer … is now, in his veterancy, both batting and bowling better than ever before.
1880. Sat. Rev., 8 May, 588. On the platform … many heroines gathered, some of them *veteranesses in this war and others recruits to the cause.
1864. T. W. Porter, in Jeffersonian Democrat (OH), 19 Feb., 2/3. Men from the 38th Ohio, who are the part of that Regiment that would not veteranize, and are now assigned to the 105th.
1884. A. F. Johnson’s Univ. Cycl. (1893), I. 355/2. The proportion was at first a little over three pieces for 1,000 infantry, but as the latter became more *veteranized this was reduced to about two pieces.
1891. Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 7 Oct. They were the first to veteranize, and this signified a great deal at that time.
