Man-at-arms
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Man-at-arms (or sometimes armsman) was a medieval term for a soldier, almost always a professional. It was most often used to refer to men in a knight's or lord's retinue who were well-equipped and -trained (deriving from having men under arms - meaning to be trained in the use of arms).
The term was used during the Hundred Years' War to refer to men not of the higher order, who fought either on horseback or on foot with swords and armour. A knight was technically a man-at-arms, but a man-at-arms was not a knight. In this way it was understood that a 'man-at-arms' was a man of the higher echelon of the military scale, but neither of noble birth nor a knight himself. By this time, the term was only ever used to refer to professional soldiers, usually of a distinctly higher order than archers or billmen. The term was phased out during the 16th century.
It was also used to refer to a man who carried hand-weapons into combat during the medieval period (rather than billmen, spearmen or archers).
When used in allusion to a professional soldier in a regular national army, the term is an honorary denotation and could be considered unusual usage.