Origin

borrowed from Middle French charabine, carabine, feminine derivative of carabin "lightly armed cavalryman," perhaps a jocular designation altered from escarrabin, scarrabin "grave digger for plague victims," probably alteration by suffix substitution of escarbot "dung beetle," going back to Old French escharbot, from escharb- (going back to the base of Latin scarabaeus "beetle") + -ot, noun suffix (going back to Vulgar Latin *-ottus, diminutive suffix).