combatant

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from late Middle English combataunt, from Middle French combatant. Doublet of combattant.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkɒm.bə.tənt/
    • (file)
  • (US, Canada) IPA(key): /kəm.ˈbæ.tənt/, /ˈkɑm.bə.tənt/

Noun[edit]

combatant (plural combatants)

  1. A person engaged in combat, often armed.
    Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
      Come hither, you that would be combatants:
      Henceforth I charge you, as you love our favour,
      Quite to forget this quarrel and the cause.
    • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 3, in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano[1], volume 1, London: for the author, page 112:
      On the passage, one day, for the diversion of those gentlemen, all the boys were called on the quarter deck, and were paired proportionably, and then made to fight; after which the gentlemen gave the combatants from five to nine shillings each.
    • 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. [], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: [] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. [], →OCLC:
      If any combatant was struck down, and unable to recover his feet, his squire or page might enter the lists, and drag his master out of the press; but in that case the knight was adjudged vanquished []
    • 1992, Naguib Mahfouz, chapter 48, in William M. Hutchins, Angele Botros Samaan, transl., Sugar Street[2], New York: Anchor Books, published 1993, page 271:
      [] Don’t you realize that alcohol is an essential part of heroism? The combatant and the drunkard are brothers, you genius.”

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

combatant (comparative more combatant, superlative most combatant)

  1. Contending; disposed to contend.
    • 1641, Ben Jonson, The Magnetic Lady[3], New York: Henry Holt, published 1914, act III, scene 5, page 65:
      Their valours are not yet so combatant,
      Or truly antagonistick, as to fight;
  2. Involving combat.
    • 1921, John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers[4], New York: Modern Library, published 1932, Part Two, Chapter 1, p. 71:
      He wished he were in a combatant service; he wanted to fight, fight.
  3. Alternative form of combattant (in heraldry: in a fighting position)
    • 1846, William Newton, Display of Heraldry, page 84:
      Or, two lions combatant gules, armed and langued (that is, claws and tongue) azure, is borne by the name of Wycombe; Azure , two lions combatant or, by the name of Carter; Azure , two lions combatant guardant argent, by  []

Derived terms[edit]

Middle French[edit]

Verb[edit]

combatant (feminine singular combatante, masculine plural combatans, feminine plural combatantes)

  1. present participle of combatre
  2. (may be preceded by en, invariable) gerund of combatre

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from French combattant.

Adjective[edit]

combatant m or n (feminine singular combatantă, masculine plural combatanți, feminine and neuter plural combatante)

  1. fighting

Declension[edit]