different between assailant vs assaulter

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

English

Etymology

assault +? -er

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??lt?(?)

Noun

assaulter (plural assaulters)

1. One who commits assault.
   • 1861, The Dublin University Magazine (volume 57, page 530)

     Earnest assaulters of current theories, or earnest apologists for them, should alike have conducted attack or defence, as it seems to us, upon some more concerted plan.

   Synonym: assailant

Anagrams

• as a result, reassault, saleratus