mercenary

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Latin mercēnārius (“mercenary, hireling”), from merces (“reward, wages, price”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈmɜː(ɹ).sən.ə.ɹi/, /ˈmɜː(ɹ)ˌsn̩.ɹi/. X-SAMPA: /"m3:(r).s@n.@.ri/, /"m3:(r)%sn=.ri/
• (US) enPR: mûrʹsə-nĕr'ē, IPA: /ˈmɜːrsəˌnɛri/, X-SAMPA: /"m3:rs@%nEri/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Adjective

mercenary (comparative more mercenary, superlative most mercenary)

1. Motivated by private gain.

Synonyms

• (motivated by private gain): greedy, venal

Translations

motivated by private gain

• Dutch: hebzuchtig (nl), geldbelust (nl)
• Finnish: rahanahne (fi)
• French: mercenaire (fr) m and f
• Greek: μισθοφορικός (el) (misthoforikós) m, ιδιοτελής (el) (idiotelís) m and f

• Italian: mercenario (it)
• Macedonian: користољубив (mk) (koristoljúbiv) m
• Portuguese: mercenário (pt) m
• Spanish: mercenario (es) m
• Swahili: mamluki (sw)

Noun

mercenary (plural mercenaries)

1. A person employed to fight in an armed conflict who is not a member of the state or military group for which they are fighting and whose prime or sole motivation is private gain.

Translations

person employed to fight

• Arabic: مرتزق (ar) (murtaziq) m
• Armenian: վարձկան (hy) (varjkan)
• Catalan: mercenari (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 雇佣兵 (cmn) (gùyōngbīng)

• Czech: žoldák (cs) m, žoldnéř (cs) m
• Danish: lejesoldat (da) c
• Dutch: huurling (nl) m
• Finnish: palkkasotilas (fi), palkkasoturi (fi)
• French: mercenaire (fr) m
• German: Söldner (de) m
• Greek: μισθοφόρος (el) (misthofóros) m
• Hungarian: zsoldos (hu), zsoldoskatona (hu)
• Icelandic: málaliði (is) m

• Italian: mercenario (it) m
• Japanese: 傭兵 (ja) (ようへい, yōhei)
• Jèrriais: mèrcénaithe m
• Latin: mercēnārius (la) m
• Macedonian: платеник (mk) (plátenik) m
• Norwegian Bokmål: leiesoldat (no) m
• Norwegian Nynorsk: leigesoldat (no) m
• Polish: najemnik (pl) m
• Portuguese: mercenário (pt) m
• Russian: наёмник (ru) (najómnik) m
• Serbo-Croatian: plaćenik (sh), najamnik (sh), plȃćenica (sh) f
• Swahili: mamluki (sw)
• Swedish: legosoldat (sv) c

See also

• soldier