noun
affreux
Affreux (noun) means a group of especially violent mercenary soldiers who fought in Africa and Asia in the 1960s.
noun
1
A group of especially violent mercenary soldiers who fought in Africa and Asia in the 1960s.
"France's return to Comoros was, above all, conspicuous through the actions of the mercenary leader Bob Denard and his team of affreux ('dreadful')."
— Tor Sellström, Africa in the Indian Ocean: Islands in Ebb and Flow (2015)
"He had once been one of the dreaded affreux, the “frightful ones,” the white freelance soldiers who helped keep dictators in power throughout Africa and Asia."
— Joseph Finder, The Zero Hour (2014)
"It takes a rather wilful ignorance to refuse to recognize the essential difference between, say, the affreux of mid-twentieth-century Africa and the Royal Gurkha Rifles, though both could loosely be described as mercenaries."
— Martin Windrow, Our Friends Beneath the Sands (2010)
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Etymology
Borrowed from French affreux.
Frequently asked questions
What is the meaning of affreux?
"affreux" (noun) means a group of especially violent mercenary soldiers who fought in Africa and Asia in the 1960s.
