bashi-bazouk

• bashibazouk

From Turkish başıbozuk, from Ottoman Turkish باشی بوزوق (“an irregular soldier, literally 'broken-head'”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bæʃɪbəˈzuːk/

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bashi-bazouk (plural bashi-bazouks)

1. An irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, reputed to be undisciplined and brutal.
   • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 336:

     In May 1876 the crisis deepened when Turkish irregular troops, known as bashi-bazouks, put twelve thousand Bulgarian Christians to the sword in a frenzy of blood-letting.

• bashi-bazoukery