<p>I know this is not new but it just bugs me. When did this happen? “Troop” used to mean a group; now every report on soldiers refers to each individual person as a troop. As in, “Three troops were wounded.” </p>
<p>But so far as I have noticed, other troops, like a boy scout troop, are still a group of people.</p>
<p>Can someone make sense of this for me?</p>
<p>I noticed this, too, at the beginning of the Iraq war. I looked it up and (unfortunately, as far as I’m concerned) troop is accepted to mean either a group or an individual.
Too bad. Just sounds wrong.</p>
<p>“just sounds wrong”, I totally agree</p>
<p>When I was in junior high, 1966, my US History teacher explained that “troops” meant/means individual soldiers. Didn’t seem like proper usage to me, but for some reason I’ve remembered it. Is it a colloquialism, as in a form of troopers?</p>
<p>I am in my 50’s, and I have known “troop” to refer to an individual soldier for as long as I can remember. If there are 300 troops, that means there are 300 soldiers. I agree that it sounds odd, but it is correct.</p>
<p>To me, a troop is a group of people (a boy scout troop).</p>
<p>A trooper is an individual (that state trooper who ticketed me).</p>
<p>A troupe is a group of dancers.</p>
<p>A toupe is a bad hairpiece.</p>
<p>I also was told that 1 troop = 1 soldier in the 1970’s by a teacher who was also a Vietnam Vet. I think the other sense of “troop” is really and Anglicized version of the word “troupe”, which would mean a larger group of people.</p>
<p>Sounds weird to me, too. I heard on the radio recently, “One troop was killed. . .” and mentally corrected it: “One soldier was killed. . .”<br>
Why not use “soldier?”
Little kids never say, “I wanna be a troop when I grow up!”</p>
<p>I’m not sure why troop refers to one person. I can tell you why they don’t use soldier. Soldier is generally army (sailor, airman, marine for other branches). So using troop is generally a military person. If someone is a marine they definitely don’t want to be called a soldier! </p>
<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC App</p>
<p>The use of the word “troop” to mean one soldier has always bothered me too…I think it depersonalizes the many soldiers who are serving and dying for our country!</p>
<p>Troop is one of the many words in English that can properly be used in more than one way. Individual soldiers are commonly referred to as “troops” and you can have a troop of soldiers (or boy scouts). It just depends on context.</p>
<p>I have never heard the phrase “one troop,” or “a troop,” or any other use of the word “troop” to refer to a single soldier. “Three troops” doesn’t bother me at all, even though it implies that there is a singular form. “The President announced a commitment of 10,000 troops” is completely conventional, and it also has the same implication.</p>
<p>It’s just a weird, irregular case in English usage. “Troops” can refer to any number of soldiers where n>1, but a single soldier is not a “troop”. The word “troop” exists in a military context, but it means a specific group of (n>1) soldiers that is the basic unit of command, usually led by a non-commissioned officer. The U.S. Army generally uses “platoon” rather than “troop,” but some units (cavalry), some branches of the military, and some foreign armies use “troop” instead to mean the same thing.</p>
<p>So I guess there is such a thing as a troop of troops…?</p>
<p>Put me in the column of those who hate the singular form of troop.</p>
<p>stradmom-
LOL! I was thinking about your last line and then saw you had posted it. 
You are a real trooper</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Because Marines are not soldiers. It would be incorrect to say that a soldier had been killed when it was a Marine. </p>
<p>Troop can be used for any of the branches of military service.</p>