Entry: gendarmes (n.)
In context: "'You believe we are underestimating to see all you as selfish, decadent. But the question has been raised: are we cells of Canada alone in this view? Aren't you afraid, you of your government and gendarmes?'"
Definition: A policeman. slang.
(Chiefly pl.) In the older French army, a horseman in full armour, having several others under his command; in later times, a mounted trooper, esp. of the royal companies. Obs. exc. Hist.
Other: If you have basic French this is an easy one:
Etymology: < French gendarme, a singular formed from the plural gens d'armes men of arms; hence a fresh plural gendarmes. Some confusion between these forms is evident in English writers; in modern French the spelling gens d'armes is restricted to the historic sense
SNOOT score: 1
Page: 430
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
Definitive Jest is a vocabulary-building and SNOOT-approved word-of-the-day blog centered around David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
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