散兵 (sǎnbīng): scattered/stragglering soldiers

Meanings

1 scattered/stragglering soldiers
2 skirmishers; troops in loose-order formation
3 (figuratively) loners; people not part of any organized group

Characters

散

Examples

战败后只剩下一些散兵游勇。

Zhànbài hòu zhǐ shèngxia yīxiē sǎnbīng yóuyǒng.

After the defeat, only a few stragglers were left.

他不属于任何队伍，是个散兵。

Tā bù shǔyú rènhé duìwǔ, shì gè sǎnbīng.

He doesn't belong to any team — he's a lone wolf.

Tips

usage

Note 散 here is sǎn (3rd tone, 'scattered'), not sàn ('to scatter'). The set phrase 散兵游勇 (sǎnbīng yóuyǒng, 'stragglers and wandering soldiers') is the most common context — it figuratively means 'unaffiliated people / lone freelancers' in modern usage.

culture

In the game Genshin Impact (《原神》), 散兵 is the in-game name of the playable character Scaramouche / Wanderer — by far the most common context in which younger Chinese speakers will hear the word.