evzone

English

Etymology

From Greek εύζωνος (évzonos), from Ancient Greek εὔζωνος (eúzōnos, “girt for battle”), from εὖ (eû, “well”) + ζώνη (zṓnē, “girdle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛvzəʊn/

Noun

evzone (plural evzones or evzonoi or evzoni)

1. A member of the Greek presidential guard.
2. An infantryman of a select corps of the Greek army.
   • 1905, Burton Holmes, The Wonders of Thessaly: The Burton Holmes Lectures: The Olympian Games in Athens; Grecian Journeys; The Wonders of Thessaly, page 242:

     The soldiers seen at various stations belong to the corps of the Greek army that proved itself most effective in the recent war, the Evzonoi.

   • 1913, Percy Falcke Martin, Greece of the Twentieth Century‎^[1], page 98:

     The best-paid Greek soldiers are the Evzonoi, their pay amounting to 12 lepta a day extra (that is to say, to 27 lepta net).

   • 1918, George Ward Price, The Story of the Salonica Army‎^[2], page 227:

     All this time little bands of rounded-up Evzones and men of the other regiment of the garrison were being brought in, together with news of the French losses.

   • 1953 April, “Our Cover”, in The Rotarian, page 4:

     That's an evzone on our cover this month — and an evzone, as you probably know, is a Greek soldier of a certain kind. Recruited from mountain districts of Greece, the evzones make up rifle units in the Greek Army — but are better known to tourists as the skirted lads who make up the Royal Palace Guard.

   • 2010, Richard H. Kraemer, The Secret War in the Balkans: A WWII Memoir‎^[3], page 107:

     The Evzones not only halted the invasion, but drove the Italians out of Greece and, by the onset of winter, occupied the southern quarter of Albania.

Translations

Greek soldier

• Greek: εύζωνος (el) m (évzonos)

Further reading

• Evzones on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

evzone m (plural evzones)

1. evzone

Further reading

• “evzone”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.