sapeur

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English

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Etymology

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From French sapeur.

Noun

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sapeur (plural sapeurs)

  1. (Africa) A member of the social movement known as La Sape, who dress as dandies and put great emphasis on style and physical appearance.
    • 2002, Frank Tenaille, translated by Steven Toussaint and Hope Sandrine, Music Is the Weapon of the Future: Fifty Years of African Popular Music, Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books, →ISBN, page 182:
      For these sapeurs, the essential thing was to dress elegantly, with name-brand clothes made by famous designers if possible.
    • 2020 July 27, Trey Kay, “Congolese dandies: Meet the stylish men and women of Brazzaville”, in The Guardian[1], London: The Guardian Media Group, retrieved 2020-10-01:
      Since the 1920s, the sapeurs of the Congo have been making sartorial statements on the streets of Brazzaville and Kinshasa.

Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Inherited from Middle French sappeur. By surface analysis, saper +‎ -eur.

Noun

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sapeur m (plural sapeurs)

  1. (military) sapper
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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From sape +‎ -eur. In the context of La Sape, the word is also treated as an initialism of Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes ("Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People").

Noun

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sapeur m (plural sapeurs, feminine sapeuse)

  1. (Africa) a member of the social movement known as La Sape, who dress as dandies and put great emphasis on style and physical appearance

Further reading

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Norman

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Etymology

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

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sapeur m (plural sapeurs)

  1. (Jersey, military) sapper