different between antagonist vs assailant

English

Etymology

From Latin antagonista, from Ancient Greek ???????????? (antag?nist?s, “opponent”) (???? (antí, “against”) + ????????? (ag?nist?s, “a combatant, pleader, actor”)), from ?????????????? (antag?nízesthai, “antagonize”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æn?tæ??n?st/

Noun

antagonist (plural antagonists)

1. An opponent or enemy.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     our antagonists in these controversies

2. One who antagonizes or stirs.
3. (biochemistry) A chemical that binds to a receptor but does not produce a physiological response, blocking the action of agonist chemicals.
   • 2001: The calcium antagonists represent one of the top ten classes of prescription drugs in terms of commercial value, with worldwide sales of nearly $10 billion in 1999. — Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2001, p. 41)
4. (authorship) The main character or force opposing the protagonist in a literary work or drama.
5. (anatomy) A muscle that acts in opposition to another.

   A flexor, which bends a part, is the antagonist of an extensor, which extends it.

Antonyms

• protagonist
• agonist (biochemistry)

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• stagnation

Danish

Noun

antagonist c (singular definite antagonisten, plural indefinite antagonister)

1. (literature) antagonist

Declension

Synonyms

• skurk

Further reading

• “antagonist” in Den Danske Ordbog

Romanian

Etymology

From French antagoniste, from Latin antagonista.

Adjective

antagonist m or n (feminine singular antagonist?, masculine plural antagoni?ti, feminine and neuter plural antagoniste)

1. antagonist

Declension

English

Etymology

From Old French asaillant, from the verb asaillir (“to jump on”), from Latin assali?, itself from ad (“to, towards”) + sali? (“to jump”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??se?l?nt/

Noun

assailant (plural assailants)

1. Someone who attacks or assails another violently, or criminally.

   Synonym: attacker

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act I, Scene 3,^[1]

     I’ll put myself in poor and mean attire,

     And with a kind of umber smirch my face;

     The like do you; so shall we pass along,

     And never stir assailants.

   • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, London: for the author, Volume 1, Chapter 2, p. 47,^[2]

     […] commonly some of us used to get up a tree to look out for any assailant, or kidnapper, that might come upon us; for they sometimes took those opportunities of our parents absence to attack and carry off as many as they could seize.

   • 1935, Christopher Isherwood, Mr. Norris Changes Trains, Penguin, 1961, Chapter 8, p. 89,^[3]

     In the middle of a crowded street a young man would be attacked, stripped, thrashed, and left bleeding on the pavement; in fifteen seconds it was all over and the assailants had disappeared.

   • 2018, Edo Konrad, "Living in the constant shadow of settler violence", +972 Magazine:

     In the village of Aqraba, the Sheikh Saadeh Mosque was set on fire before the assailants graffitied the words “price tag” and “revenge” on its walls.

2. (figuratively, by extension) A hostile critic or opponent.
   • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, London: T. Payne and Son and T. Cadell, Volume 5, Book 9, Chapter 3, p. 41,^[4]

     […] the assailants of the quill have their honour as much at heart as the assailants of the sword.

Translations

Adjective

assailant (not comparable)

1. Assailing; attacking.
   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes, lines 1687 to 1696.

Anagrams

• Alsatians, alsatians