pioneer, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Special sense of general English.
A member of the Pioneer Column.
1890 V. Morier in P. Gibbs Hist. of BSAP (1972) I. 20Neither the Police nor the Pioneers are quite all we heard from the enthusiast in London. The Pioneers are exactly the same class of men as our troopers, chiefly miners thrown out of employment by the smash of the Johannesburg gold fields.
1891 M. Colquhoun in E.T. Jollie Real Rhodesia (1924) 305It is expedient for the defence of Mashonaland that a certain number of ex-pioneers and prospectors under agreement with the British South Africa Company should be called upon to assist in the defence of Mashonaland.
1937 J. Stevenson-Hamilton S. Afr. Eden 289He accompanied the pioneers to Rhodesia in 1890.
1970 T.V. Bulpin in Outpost 11By the middle of June 1890, the Police and Pioneers were considered to be ready.
1970 S. Hoste in Outpost 18This note was signed by Mahan, Suckling and Ogilvie, all of them ex-pioneers.
1972 P. Gibbs Hist. of BSAP I.Within the next two weeks the pioneers were disbanded, to fan out over the surrounding countryside in search of the farms and mining claims they had been promised as part of their contracts.
A member of the Pioneer Column.
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English
pinotage, nounn.Pioneer Column, noun phrasen. phr.
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