When did the word "troop" start to mean only ONE soldier?

First time I’ve heard that usage. A troop is a group. Can you provide a link to an article that contains this 1 troop = 1 soldier usage?

The media is retarded.

Wiki
A troop is a military unit, originally a small force of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron and headed by the troop leader. A cavalry soldier of private rank is called a trooper

A related sense of the term troop refers to soldiers collectively, as in the troops;
——
But yeah, don’t expect Journalists to understand the definition of words.
2000 troops
2000 troops
2000 troops

Thanks for the links, fireside.

Yeah. You’d never hear anyone refer to a group of thespians as, “the troupes.” It’s weird that this has become a common usage of troop. Also, the word “troop” looks ridiculous when you read it a lot.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of deusexmachina, I shall wade into the fray. This is usage decay again.

If you say “British troops stormed the citadel,” it accurately refers to a large number of soldiers from different units in an operation.

If you see four British soldiers removing bodies from rubble, it would be erroneous to say, “Bristish troops remove bodies.” It should be soldiers.

The earliest citation is from 1832:

1832 B. HALL Fragments of Voy. & Trav. 2nd Ser. (ed. 2) iv. 124 The monkey stowed himself away..till the same marine passed.., and laid hold of him by the calf of the leg… As the wounded ‘troop’ was not much hurt, a sort of truce was proclaimed.

I hear it on the news every single time they refer to the number of soldiers we’re planning to send home, or the number of soldiers injured, the number of soldiers in a certain place, etc. It’s not uncommon at all anymore. And it’s been used this way for quite some time.

We use it in the Air Force a lot. Calling individuals a “troop”. “Oh, that’s, SSgt Smith’s troop.” I guess it’s because we don’t want to call them soldiers since we aren’t soldiers. And it seems weird to call a Sergeant an Airman, even if we are all “airmen”, it is still also a rank.

Stellar, when you say “Oh, that’s SSgt Smith’s troop.”, you are referring to one individual airman?

Yes

Yeah, soldier is the correct word. Both troop and infantry refer to a group of soldiers.

Neither journalists nor the makers of the original Command and Conquer know how to use words correctly.

As Stellar alluded to, “soldier” is indeed the correct word… for members of the Army. For members of the Air Force, Marines, & Navy, it’s not the right word. In fact, I think most of them would be insulted. (Stellar, correct me if I’m wrong)

Yes, most would at least be annoyed at being called a soldier. Some of my old friends still do it because they know nothing about the military and just assume everyone is a soldier. Each branch looks down on the other branches for various reasons, so being called a member of another branch would be insulting or frustrating to some people. I mean I’m not going to say anything other than to politely correct someone, but it does get a bit old when everyone assumes you are a Soldier just because you wear a uniform. Of course in the Air Force everyone assumes you are a fighter pilot, so that kind of sucks too. Sometimes it’s easier to just say “Yes, I am a fighter pilot”, especially when I’m wearing my flight suit. Otherwise it takes too long to explain… :-/

i am so glad somebody asked this question.

day after day, i hear “troops” referring to just one soldier and i cringe when i hear it. i also was a boy scout and i belonged to a “troop”—troop 583 i must add and we were a “group” of boy scouts in that troop.

ironically, though, being referred to as a “soldier” in urban environments is a label of “hardness, experience, fearlessness.” being a soldier is a good thing. .

I remember asking the same question to someone 40 years ago and being told that the term troop means just one soldier. If that is incorrect, it’s been in usage for a long time. I don’t know if you can extrapolate from boy scout usage to military usage.

IS IT POSSIBLE that “troop” is a generic term to represent someone from ANY of the Armed Forces i.e., rather then saying “100 soldiers, 200 sailors, 300 airmen” you say “600 troops”?? Just guessing, here.

Maybe it just speaks to the advancement of our armed services?
Nowadays, (or even 40 years ago) a single man (or woman) could probably hold off as much as a small cavalry troop could a couple hundred years ago.

@ Mr M I believe that’s so.

@Mr_M here is the definition from the OED

Chiefly in sing. [Irreg. f. the collect. pl.: in some cases perh. abbrev. of TROOPER n.] A member of a troop of soldiers (or other servicemen); a soldier, a trooper. colloq. (chiefly Mil.).

@Mr_M that’s how we use the term in the Air Force, at least in my experience.