cannoneer

Etymology

This word was borrowed from French canonnier, its ending reshaped to the English agent-noun suffix -eer (denoting someone associated with, concerned with, or engaged in a specified activity). Canonnier itself comes from Middle French cannonier, canonnier, from canon ("cannon") — built from cane (from Old French cane, "tube", from Latin canna ("cane; reed; something resembling a cane"), from Ancient Greek κᾰ́ννᾰ (kắnnă, "giant reed (Arundo donax)"), from Akkadian qanûm ("reed")) plus the augmentative suffix -on — plus -ier (a suffix denoting a profession). By surface analysis, it can also be read as cannon + -eer.