Gunners

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who operate firearms or artillery weapons in military or combat situations
2. Persons assigned to handle and fire guns, especially on ships or in the army
3. Those trained to aim, load, and fire guns, particularly large mounted weapons used in warfare

Etymology: "Gunners" is simply the plural of "gunner", a person who operates a gun. The noun traces back to Middle English "gonner", which was formed by adding the agent suffix "-er" to "gun". The base word is the more surprising part of the story: "gun" itself has a murky origin, and the earliest English uses of "gonner" meant someone who handled the large, early artillery pieces of the late Middle Ages. The word has also travelled back into other languages. Cebuano, a language of the Philippines, borrowed "gunner" from English, and that loan has since been borrowed again into English, so the term has completed a round trip. The sense has stayed remarkably stable across six centuries: whether the weapon was a medieval bombard or a modern howitzer, a gunner is the person who aims and fires it.

Synonyms: shooters, marksmen, archers, snipers, artillerymen