Pioneer
Just to beat it to death... The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word to Old French.
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pioneer, n.
[a. F. pionnier, OF. paonier (11th c.), also peon(n)ier, pion(n)ier,
orig. foot-soldier, later pioneer, f. OF. peon, pion: see PEON, PAWN,
and -IER. So Prov. pezonier, pessonier, f. pezon foot-soldier.]
1. Mil. One of a body of foot-soldiers who march with or in advance of
an army or regiment, having spades, pickaxes, etc. to dig trenches,
repair roads, and perform other labours in clearing and preparing
the way for the main body.
*2. a. gen. One who digs a trench, pit, etc.; a digger, excavator; a
miner. Obs.
b. A labourer (app. confused with PINER1).
3. (fig.)
a. One who goes before to prepare or open up the way for
others to follow; one who begins, or takes part in beginning,
some enterprise, course of action, etc.; an original
investigator, explorer, or worker, in any department of
knowledge or activity; an originator, initiator (of some
action, scheme, etc.); a forerunner (in such action, etc.). (In
17th c. usually a fig. use of ‘miner’ or ‘underminer’.)
b. (Usu. with cap. initial.) In Ireland, a member of the Pioneer
Total Abstinence Association; a teetotaller.
c. Ecol. A plant which establishes itself in an unoccupied area.
d. (Usu. with capital initial.) In the U.S.S.R. and other
communist countries, a member of a Society of Young Pioneers, a
movement for children below the age of sixteen. Also transf.
and attrib.
4. attrib.
a. (Usually appositive, in sense 3).
b. (In sense 3c above) pioneer association, plant, species, tree.
