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Sapper

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sapper

Military engineer. The name is derived from the French word sappe (“trench”), which became connected with military engineering in the 17th century, when attackers dug covered trenches to approach the walls of a besieged fort and also undermined the walls by tunneling beneath them. In modern armies, sappers provide tactical support by carrying out construction, including earthworks, portable bridges, and tank traps; build major facilities such as airports, supply roads, fuel depots, and barracks; and handle additional tasks, including disarming and disposing of land mines and unexploded bombs and preparing and distributing maps.

Sapper
real name Herman Cyril McNeile. 1888--1937, British novelist, author of the popular thriller Bull-dog Drummond (1920) and its sequels


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The ordinary sapper is a great deal better educated than the common soldier, and they discussed the peculiar conditions of the possible fight with some acuteness.
The War Of The Worlds by Wells, H.G. View in context
The serpent was on the watch, the train was laid, the mine was preparing, the sapper and miner was at work.
The Posthumous Papers Of The Pickwick Club by Dickens, Charles View in context
There is always a breeze in the "camp," as it is called; and here it lies, just as the Romans left it, except that cairn on the east side, left by her Majesty's corps of sappers and miners the other day, when they and the engineer officer had finished their sojourn there, and their surveys for the ordnance map of Berkshire.
Tom Brown's Schooldays by Hughes, Thomas View in context
 
 
 
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