Jump to content

vanguard

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]
WOTD – 29 July 2026

Alternative forms

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From Middle English vandgard, vaunte garde, vaunt garde, wantgard, from advaunte-garde, avauntgard with aphesis, from Old French avangarde, avant-garde, avantgarde,[1][2][3] from avant (“before; in front”) + garde (“guard”).[4][5] Doublet of avant-garde and vaward.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]
The Attack of the Prussian Infantry at the Battle of Hohenfriedberg (c. 1913) by Carl Röchling, depicting infantry forming the vanguard in 1745 (sense 1)
A mid-19th-century lithograph by Jan Lewicki of cavalrymen of the 2nd and 3rd Lithuanian Vanguard Regiments in 1775 (sense 1)

vanguard (plural vanguards)

  2. (military) The leading units at the front of an army or fleet.
    Synonyms: advance guard, (obsolete) avant, (obsolete) avant-garde, van, vaward
    Antonyms: (obsolete) arrière-garde, rearguard
  3. (by extension) The person or people at the forefront of a group or movement.
    Synonyms: avant-garde, remnant
    • 1921, Ben Travers, “The Nest”, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC, part I (“Come He Will”), page 35:
      By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.
    • 2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The Horror! The Horror! The Trauma of ISIS”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 November 2014:
      [O]ne minute this "Jihadi John" was struggling to get by, and get accepted, in drizzly England, unemployed with a mortgage to pay and a chip on his shoulder, and the next he stands in brilliant Levantine sunlight, where everything is clear and etched, at the vanguard of some Sunni Risorgimento intent on subjecting the world to its murderous brand of Wahhabi Islam.
    • 2025 January 20, Simon Montlake, “‘We’re the majority now’: MAGA returns to Washington, with a whole new vibe”, in The Christian Science Monitor‎[2], Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 January 2025:
      The outsiders are looking more like insiders, the vanguard of a cultural and political shift that could be far more profound than in his first presidency.

Derived terms

[edit]
[edit]

Translations

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ “avaunt-gard, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “vanguard, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  3. ^ “vantguard, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  4. ^ “avant-garde, n. and adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  5. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “vanguard (n.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=vanguard&oldid=91742607"