prisoner of war

English

WOTD – 18 August 2022

Etymology

Calque of French prisonnier de guerre, prisonier de guerre (obsolete).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪz.(ə).nə əv ˈwɔː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪz.(ə).nɚ əv ˈwoɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: pri‧son‧er of war

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Noun

prisoner of war (plural prisoners of war)

1. A combatant or soldier who is captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. [from early 17th c.]

   Synonyms: (abbreviations) POW, PW

   As a prisoner of war, he was interrogated by his enemy captors.

   • 1885-1900, John Knox Laughton, Dictionary of National Biography, Ashworth, Henry (1785-1811):

     In November 1799 he entered on board the 38-gun frigate Hussar, under the immediate patronage of the first lieutenant, and four years later was serving as midshipman on board the same ship when she was lost on the Saintes, near Brest, on 8 Feb. 1804. Whilst prisoner of war, Mr. Ashworth made several remarkable attempts to recover his freedom; and at last, having escaped from Bitche in December 1808, he succeeded in passing through Germany to Trieste, where he got on board the English frigate L'Unité.

Derived terms

• prisoner-of-war camp

Translations

combatant or soldier captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict

• Albanian: rob lufte m
• Arabic: أَسِير الْحَرْب m (ʔasīr al-ḥarb), أَسِير m (ʔasīr)
• Armenian: ռազմագերի (hy) (ṙazmageri)
• Azerbaijani: hərbi əsir
• Belarusian: ваеннапало́нны (vajennapalónny), пало́нны m (palónny)
• Bulgarian: военнопле́нник m (voennoplénnik)
• Burmese: စစ်သုံ့ပန်း (cacsum.pan:), သုံ့ပန်း (my) (sum.pan:)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 戰俘 / 战俘 (zh) (zhànfú), 俘虜 / 俘虏 (zh) (fúlǔ)

• Czech: zajatec (cs) m, válečný zajatec m
• Danish: krigsfange c
• Dutch: krijgsgevangene (nl) m or f, oorlogsgevangene (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: militkaptito (eo)
• Estonian: sõjavang
• Faroese: krígsfangi m
• Finnish: sotavanki (fi)
• French: prisonnier de guerre (fr) m, prisonnière de guerre f
• Galician: prisioneiro de guerra m, prisioneira de guerra f
• Georgian: სამხედრო ტყვე (samxedro ṭq̇ve)
• German: Kriegsgefangener (de) m, Kriegsgefangene (de) f
• Greek: αιχμάλωτος πολέμου m or f (aichmálotos polémou)

  Ancient Greek: αἰχμάλωτος m or f (aikhmálōtos)

• Hebrew: שָׁבוּי m (shavúy), שְׁבוּיָה f (shvuyá)
• Hindi: युद्ध-बंदी m (yuddh-bandī), बंदी (hi) m (bandī)
• Hungarian: hadifogoly (hu)
• Icelandic: stríðsfangi m
• Indonesian: tahanan perang
• Interlingua: prisionero de guerra
• Italian: prigioniero di guerra m, prigioniera di guerra f
• Japanese: 捕虜 (ja) (ほりょ, horyo)
• Kazakh: соғыс тұтқыны (soğys tūtqyny), әскери тұтқын (äskeri tūtqyn)
• Khmer: អ្នកទោសសង្គ្រាម (nĕək tooh sɑngkriəm)
• Korean: 전쟁 포로(戰爭捕虜) (jeonjaeng poro), 포로(捕虜) (ko) (poro)
• Kyrgyz: согуш туткуну (soguş tutkunu)
• Latin: dēditīcius m
• Latvian: karagūsteknis m
• Lithuanian: karo belaisvis m, karo belaisvė f
• Malay: tahanan perang
• Marathi: युद्धकैदी m (yuddhakaidī)
• Nandi: cheploñgio
• Navajo: yisnááh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: krigsfange m

  Nynorsk: krigsfange (nn) m

• Persian: اسیر (fa) (asir), اسیر جنگی (asir-e jangi), اسیر حربی (asir-e harbi)
• Polish: jeniec wojenny m pers
• Portuguese: prisioneiro de guerra m, prisioneira de guerra f
• Romanian: prizonier de război m
• Russian: военнопле́нный (ru) m (vojennoplénnyj), пле́нный (ru) m (plénnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: prìosanach-chogaidh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: заробљеник m, ратни заробљеник m

  Latin: zarobljenik (sh) m, ratni zarobljenik m

• Slovak: zajatec m, vojnový zajatec m
• Slovene: ujetnik (sl) m, vojni ujetnik m
• Spanish: prisionero de guerra m, prisionera de guerra f
• Swahili: mfungwa wa vita
• Swedish: krigsfånge (sv) c
• Tajik: асир (tg) (asir), асири ҳарбӣ (asir-i harbi)
• Tamil: போர் கைதி (pōr kaiti)
• Tatar: әсир (tt) (äsir)
• Telugu: యుద్ధ ఖైదీ (yuddha khaidī)
• Thai: เชลยศึก (chá-ləəi-sʉ̀k)
• Turkish: savaş tutsağı (tr), savaş esiri

  Ottoman Turkish: اسیر (esir), طالاق (dalak)

• Ukrainian: бра́нець (uk) m (bránecʹ), військовополоне́ний m (vijsʹkovopolonényj), полоне́ний m (polonényj)
• Urdu: جنگی قیدی m (jangī qaidī)
• Uyghur: ئەسىر (esir)
• Uzbek: harbiy asir
• Vietnamese: tù binh (vi)
• Volapük: kligafanäböpäb

Further reading

• prisoner of war on Wikipedia.Wikipedia