Handlanger

Meaning

Noun

• A low-ranking artillery soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Origin

• Borrowed from German Handlanger ("handyman; henchman"), from Hand + langen + -er (in the sense of someone who puts things into another person's hands, that is, someone whose task it is to help another person succeed). The word was loaned into Dutch and might have entered English through the Dutch form.