combatant

English

Etymology

Inherited from late Middle English combataunt, from Middle French combatant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒm.bə.tənt/
• IPA^(key): /kəm.ˈbæ.tənt/

Noun

combatant (plural combatants)

1. A person engaged in combat, often armed.

   Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.

   • c. 1591 William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 1,^[1]

     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, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, London: for the author, Volume 1, Chapter 3, p. 112,^[2]

     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, Chapter 12,^[3]

     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, William M. Hutchins and Angele Botros Samaan (translators), Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz, New York: Anchor Books, 1993, Chapter 48, p. 271,^[4]

     “ […] Don’t you realize that alcohol is an essential part of heroism? The combatant and the drunkard are brothers, you genius.”

Derived terms

• contractor combatant
• enemy combatant
• illegal combatant
• non-combatant

Synonyms

• battler
• fighter

Translations

person engaged in combat, often armed

• Bulgarian: боец (bg) m (boec)
• Catalan: combatent (ca) m or f
• Danish: kombattant c
• Esperanto: batalanto, batalantino (female)
• French: combattant (fr) m, combattante (fr) f
• German: Kämpfer (de) m, Kämpferin (de) f, Bekämpfer m, Bekämpferin f, Kombattant (de) m, Kombattantin f
• Greek: μαχητής (el) (machitís), πολεμιστής (el) (polemistís)
• Ido: kombatanto (io)
• Italian: combattente (it) m or f
• Latin: proeliātor m
• Latvian: cīnītājs m, cīnītāja f
• Norman: combattant m, combattante f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kombattant m

  Nynorsk: kombattant m

• Persian: رزمنده (fa) (razmande)
• Portuguese: combatente (pt) m or f
• Romanian: combatant (ro) m, combatantă f
• Russian: бое́ц (ru) m (bojéc), во́ин (ru) m (vóin)
• Spanish: combatiente (es) m or f
• Swedish: kombattant (sv) c

Adjective

combatant (comparative more combatant, superlative most combatant)

1. Contending; disposed to contend.
   • 1641, Ben Jonson, The Magnetic Lady, New York: Henry Holt, 1914, Act III, Scene 5, p. 65,^[5]

     Their valours are not yet so combatant,

     Or truly antagonistick, as to fight;

2. Involving combat.
   • 1921, John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers, New York: Modern Library, 1932, Part Two, Chapter 1, p. 71,^[6]

     He wished he were in a combatant service; he wanted to fight, fight.

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Middle French

Verb

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