DCHP-1 Online

Voltigeur [Cdn F < F voltigeur horseman, sharpshooter , voltiger leap] Hist.

• 1 n. in French Canada, a militiaman; a specialist in bush warfare.

  See also: ranger (def. 2a)  

  • 1812  The Voltigeurs. This Corps now forming under the command of Major De Salaberry, is completing with a dispatch worthy of the ancient warlike spirit of the country.
  • 1836  A handbill has been extensively posted in different parts of this city, calling a meeting of the Canadians this evening at Rasco's, for the purpose of forming a company of Voltigeurs.
  • 1896  His three hundred men were the Canadian fencibles and Voltigeurs.
  • 1963  To these were added the .. . Voltigeurs of Lower Canada under a Canadian officer of the British Army, Colonel Charles de Salaberry...

• 2 n. See 1955 quote.

  • 1894  Mr. J. W. McKay, who was at the time in charge of the coal works at Nanaimo, was ordered to take twenty-one voltigeurs, and secrete them near the mouth of the river to watch the Indian village that no one should leave during the night.
  • 1955  Vancouver Island had an active armed militia, which under the name "Victoria Voltigeurs" played an important part in the protection of the Colony from Indian attack. It was organized about 1850 ...