Also zouava. [F., f. native name Zouaoua (see below).]
1. One of a body of light infantry in the French army, originally recruited from the Algerian Kabyle tribe of Zouaoua, but afterwards composed of French soldiers distinguished for their physique and dash, and formerly retaining the original Oriental uniform.
[1830. trans. E. Blaquiere’s Sig. Pananti (ed. 2), 56. The whole of the native warriors called the Zouavi.]
1848. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., II. 520. The Zouaves were standing on the breach.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks., 8 Jan. Zouaves with turbans, long mantles, and bronzed, half Moorish faces.
1897. C. F. Lummis, in Harper’s Mag., April, 752/1. In January, 1863, the French general Forey laid siege to Puebla…. In one of the many assaults on the corner held by Diaz the zouaves broke into the first court-yard of his stronghold.
fig. 1858. Beecher, Life Th., 135. Those sciences which might be called the light infantry of progress, the Zouaves of thought.
1903. G. J. Holyoake, in Speaker, 30 May, 210/2. The ‘Physical Force’ agitators were the Zouaves of Carlton House.
attrib. 1863. E. Dicey, Six Months, II. 7. The orderly disorder of a Zouave march.
b. (Also Papal or Pontifical Z.) One of a corps of French soldiers organized at Rome in 1860 for the defence of the pope, and disbanded in 1871.
1864. Manning, in A. Reinaud, Abbé-Zouave, Pref. p. ix. Some hundreds of the Pontifical Zouaves, chiefly French and Belgian,… were seen at St. Peter’s.
1868. trans. Cardella’s J. W. Russell, 38. When he returned to Rome to join the Zouaves.
c. A soldier of any of several volunteer regiments, assuming the name and in part the uniform of the French Zouaves, which served on the side of the North in the American Civil War (1861–5).
1865. Sala, My Diary, I. 292. In the beginning, when the Yankee Zouaves were young and hopeful.
2. (In full, z. jacket, bodice.) A woman’s short embroidered jacket or bodice, with or without sleeves, resembling the jacket of the Zouave uniform.
1859. Ladies’ Treas., Sept., 285/1. One of the most decided novelties of the present season is the Zouave jacket.
1859. Ladies’ Cabinet, Dec., 335/1. Nothing can be prettier for the interior than the little oriental jackets which we call to-day Zouaves.
1893. Lady, 17 Aug., 178/1. Zouave Bodices are a feature of autumn gowns.
