| Title: | Soldier |
| Original Title: | Soldat |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 15 (1765), p. 311 |
| Author: | Guillaume Le Blond (biography) |
| Translator: | Thiago Rodrigues [Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF)] |
| Subject terms: |
Military Arts
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.623 |
| Citation (MLA): | Le Blond, Guillaume. "Soldier." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Thiago Rodrigues. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2020. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.623>. Trans. of "Soldat," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 15. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Le Blond, Guillaume. "Soldier." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Thiago Rodrigues. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.623 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Soldat," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 15:311 (Paris, 1765). |
SOLDIER, is a man prepared for war who serves a prince or a state in exchange for a payment.
This word comes from the Italian soldato , which, for its turn, comes from the Latin solida , or solidata , or solidus , military pay or payment. Nonetheless, Pasquier prefers to set its origins from a contraction of the old Gallic expression solet doyer , forming soldier ; while Nicode derives it from soldurrus .
The soldat is the one who perceives the payment; a vassal is the one who is obliged to serve at his own expense; a volunteer is also who serves at his own expense, but out of goodwill. See Vassal, etc.
Du Cange remarks that ancient soldiers could not have been less than five and half feet in height, and that this measurement was called incomma or incoma. [1] Chambers . [2]
According to Vegetius, in order to recognize who is going to be the best soldiers we must rely on everything that we could possibly know by observation, by the set of elements of a face, and by the conformation of the limbs. For that author, there are unequivocal signs and evidence that allow those who have the experience to evaluate the warrior qualities of men, as well as one can infer the value of horses or hounds. The freshman soldier must have vivid eyes, a lofty head, a large chest, robust shoulders, strong hands, long arms, a small belly, a slender waist, leg and foot more vigorous than plumb. These qualities allow one to dispense with insisting on the height, because it is more necessary for a soldier to be robust than tall. New translation of Vegetius . [3] It is preferable to engage soldiers from the countryside than from towns, since they are more suitable to endure the military work and efforts.
1. Translator’s note: The measurement of feet refers to the old French unit – pied (literally ‘foot’) . One pied was equivalent to 1.066 feet or 32.48 cm.
2. The reference is to the main source for the Encyclopédie , Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopaedia, or, An universal dictionary of arts and sciences (London, 1728).
3. Institutions militaires de Végèce , trans. Claude-Guillaume Bourdon de Sigrais (Paris, 1743).