troopie, noun

Forms:
Also troepie.
Origin:
Rhodesian EnglishShow more Probably from Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) English, adaptation of trooper.
colloquial
A private soldier, especially a national serviceman. Also attributive.
1975 J.H. Picard in Eng. Usage in Sn Afr. Vol.6 No.1, 36Some of the troepies with particularly dirty habits..receive the title vuilgat...Of course some ‘troepies’ are impatient for their period of service to end.
1977 Rand Daily Mail 13 Jan.Man, us troepies is sommer bangled. Any troepie will tell you that the drie-streep korporaal met ’n volume control who sent that Jimmy vuiluil to Durban Beach after he was bangled in the varkpen is a koptoe ou. Gobbledegook? By no means. It is the lingua franca of the Defence Force.
1979 Daily Dispatch 21 Mar. 10If one man in a platoon did not pull his weight then all the men suffered,..and they soon ‘encouraged’ the tardy troopie to do his bit.
1980 Sunday Times 14 Dec. 17Troopies come marching home on Friday. Friday is D-Day — Demobilisation Day — for thousands of young men.
1980 Cape Times 17 Jan. 2It’s hard to believe it in sweltering January, but a troopie’s best friend is his greatcoat — with his steel trunk and his pillow next on the list.
1981 Fair Lady 8 Apr. 7We live in a small town which has been a camp for basic training for thousands of troepies over the years.
1982 Grocott’s Mail 8 Oct. 2For new troopies at Grahamstown’s 6 SA Infantry Battalion, last week was their first pass after 12 weeks of basic training.
1989 Daily Dispatch 21 Apr. 4Troopie suicides high.
1992 Weekly Mail 6 Mar. 30Any troepie who shows reticence or queasiness is branded a ‘moffie’.
A private soldier, especially a national serviceman. Also attributive.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19751992

Browse Related Words

By Category

Ranks and Roles
Occupations

By Usage

colloquial
tronk, nounn.tropsluiter, nounn.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English.