sapeur

Sapeur Michel comments on the strange combination of poverty and fashion, "A Congolese sapeur is a happy man even if he does not eat, because wearing proper clothes feeds the soul and gives pleasure to the body."

Boing Boing 2009

My father was therefore almost alone when the door was forced in by one sapeur, axe in hand raised to strike him, but [here] by his coolness and imperturbable courage my father so awed the assassin that the weapon fell from his hand, – an event almost incomprehensible.

The Ruin of a Princess Cl 1912

Nowadays, the mildest youth in the Young Men's Christian Association may wear a moustache without being denounced as "carnal," and paterfamilias revels in the beard of a sapeur, no misopogon daring to say him nay.

Mystic London: or, Phases of occult life in the metropolis Charles Maurice Davies 1869

Even though by nature a sapeur is non-violent (remarkable in an area known for its many often brutal civil wars), there are "fight days" when sapeurs gather and dress up and show off.

NOGOODFORME.COM 2010

That vivid sapeur-iste palette juiced up the show, and the menswear theme kept circling around, in a banker-striped shirt extended into a full dress, say, or the tan suit worn over checked waistcoat, collar, and tie.

Style.com: Daily Fashion Show Pictures 2009

There is even the folkloric Lyonnais dish tablier de sapeur, the sapper’s apron (literally, a combat engineer’s protective garment), tripe that has been breaded and fried, like schnitzel.

A New York Spin on French Classics 2009

_sapeur_, but far indeed from being one of those graceless comrades of his to whom nothing is sacred.

A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century George Saintsbury 1889