▪ I. sapper1
(ˈsæpə(r))
[f. sap v.1 + -er1, after F. sapeur.]
1. One who saps; spec. a soldier employed in working at saps, the building and repairing of fortifications, the execution of field-works, and the like.
The non-commissioned officers and privates of the Engineers were formerly called the (Royal) Sappers and Miners, but in 1859 they became the Royal Engineers. (The privates are still unofficially called sappers.)
| 1626 tr. Boccalini's New-found Politicke 92 These are..tooles belonging to Pioners, Sappers, Diggers [etc.]. 1642 Hexham Princ. Art Milit. ii. (ed. 2) 37 He..continues the Sap,..and then follows another Sapper presently, who [etc.]. 1782 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2) IX. 6952/1 A brigade of sappers generally consists of eight men, divided equally into two parties; and whilst one of these parties is advancing the sap, the other is furnishing the gabions, fascines, and other necessary implements, who relieve each other alternately. 1811 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) VIII. 601, I would beg to suggest..the expediency of adding to the Engineers' establishment a corps of sappers and miners. 1851 Ord. & Regul. Roy. Engineers §2. 7 Officers of Engineers, are restrained from employing Soldiers of the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners, as Servants. 1868 Regul. & Ord. Army ¶762 A Gunner, Sapper or private, as the case may be. 1872 Pall Mall G. 6 Apr. 8 For use by the officers and sappers of the Royal Engineers for torpedo operations. 1896 Kipling Seven Seas 175 The Lord He created the Engineer, Her Majesty's Royal Engineer, With the rank and pay of a Sapper! |
2. attrib. and comb., as sapper officer, etc.; sapper-pumper, nonce-wd., used for F. sapeur-pompier a member of a (French) fire-brigade.
| 1876 Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. (ed. 3) s.v. Engineers, On active service, an engineer officer is sometimes a *sapper officer. |
| 1841 Thackeray Second Funeral Napoleon iii, The *Sapper-pumpers, with ditto. 1894 Du Maurier Trilby vi. (1895) 288 All the sapper-pumpers..with their beautiful brass helmets! |
| 1900 Daily News 21 May 7/6 A telegraph cart manned by *sapper telegraphists. |
▪ II. sapper2 Mech.
(ˈsæpə(r))
[f. sap n.1 + -er1.]
A tool for cutting away sap-wood (see quots.).
| 1822 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. V. 147 On this shaft [of a rotary saw machine] are the saw and sappers... The sappers which are crooked pieces of iron, steel edged,..cut the sap off the log. 1891 Century Dict., Sapper, a chisel used in some sawing-machines to cut away waste or sap-wood and reduce a log to a cylindrical shape. |
▪ III. sapper3 Eton slang.
(ˈsæpə(r))
[f. sap v.3 + -er1.]
One who ‘saps’ or studies hard.
| 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy (1907) I. 52 Pleasant clever Hawtrey, and careful Okes, and that shrewd sapper, Green..: these form his classic escort to the cloisters. |