soldier [ME] Soldiers take their name not from the fact that they are trained to fight but because they are paid to do so. The word entered English in the 13th century, from Old French soldier, from soulde ‘pay, especially army pay’. The ultimate source is Latin solidus, the name of a gold coin that the Romans used.

Don’t come (or play) the old soldier is something you might say to a person who tries to use their greater age or experience of life to deceive you or to shirk a duty. An old soldier, someone who has been around and knows all the tricks, has been a proverbial figure since the 1720s.