carabin

carabineer; medical student

1583 in the sense "light cavalrist". Later (1803) also "medical student". Etymology uncertain, suggestions include scarrabin "corpse-bearer during the plague" (1521), probably an ironic metaphor from a meaning "plague beetle" (from the family of escarbot, from Latin scarabaeus). This suggestion implies that the soldiers called carabins were named after their reputation of rapidly and reliably dispatching of their enemies. Alternatively, the meaning "medical student" may be primary, the ironic me