gendarme
noun
[ ˈʒɒndɑːm ]
• a paramilitary police officer in France and other French-speaking countries.
• "he was hauled off by a gendarme to the police station"
• a rock pinnacle on a mountain, occupying and blocking an arête.
• "the granite pillars and gendarmes kept the sun from warming us"
Origin:
mid 16th century (originally denoting a mounted officer in the French army): French, from gens d'armes ‘men of arms’. gendarme (sense 1) dates from the late 18th century.
