# combatant
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈkɒm.bə.tənt/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (US, Canada) IPA: /kəmˈbæ.tənt/, /ˈkɑm.bə.tənt/

### Noun

combatant (plural combatants)
* 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, 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.
** 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (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, 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

* battler
* fighter

#### Derived terms

* contractor combatant
* enemy combatant
* illegal combatant
* non-combatant, noncombatant
* surface combatant

#### Translations
### Adjective

combatant (comparative more combatant, superlative most combatant)
* Contending; disposed to contend.
** 1641, Ben Jonson, The Magnetic Lady‎, 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;
* Involving combat.
** 1921, John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers‎, 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.
* 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

* countercombatant

## Middle French
### Verb

combatant (feminine singular combatante, masculine plural combatans, feminine plural combatantes)
* present participle of combatre
* (may be preceded by en, invariable) gerund of combatre

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French combattant.

### Adjective

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