Montagnard

Meaning

Noun

• A member of La Montagne (The Mountain), a French political group active 1792-1799 during the French Revolution of 1789.
• A member of La Montagne (The Mountain), Democratic Socialists active 1849-1852 in the French Second Republic after the French Revolution of 1848.
• A member of the indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
• A member of the Khmer Loeu, highland tribes in Cambodia.

Origin

• Via French montagnard, from Middle French montaigne from Old French montaigne from Late Latin montania, a substantivization of the feminine of Vulgar Latin *montānius, an alteration of Latin montānus from mōns, from Proto-Italic *monts, from Proto-Indo-European *men-. The French group was so called because they sat on the topmost benches.