matross
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Dutch matroos (“sailor, seaman”), essentially from French matelot (“seaman”), from Middle Dutch mattenoot. Compare German Matrose, Swedish matros, Danish matros, and Crimean Tatar matros.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
matross (plural matrosses)
- (military, now historical) An artilleryman next in rank to a gunner; a gunner's mate, especially one who assists the gunners in loading, firing, and sponging the guns. [from 17th c.]
- 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter V, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 48:
- [T]he matrosses, in their annual gesture of amity, had torn the sky with the largest piece of ordnance in the Great Keep […] .