different between combatant vs defender

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?m.b?.t?nt/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /k?m.?bæ.t?nt/

Noun

combatant (plural combatants)

1. A person engaged in combat, often armed.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 1,^[1]

     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, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, London: for the author, Volume 1, Chapter 3, p. 112,^[2]

     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.

   • 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Chapter 12,^[3]

     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, William M. Hutchins and Angele Botros Samaan (translators), Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz, New York: Anchor Books, 1993, Chapter 48, p. 271,^[4]

     “ […] Don’t you realize that alcohol is an essential part of heroism? The combatant and the drunkard are brothers, you genius.”

Derived terms

• contractor combatant
• enemy combatant
• illegal combatant
• non-combatant

Synonyms

• battler
• fighter

Translations

Adjective

combatant (comparative more combatant, superlative most combatant)

1. Contending; disposed to contend.
   • 1641, Ben Jonson, The Magnetic Lady, New York: Henry Holt, 1914, Act III, Scene 5, p. 65,^[5]

     Their valours are not yet so combatant,

     Or truly antagonistick, as to fight;

2. Involving combat.
   • 1921, John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers, New York: Modern Library, 1932, Part Two, Chapter 1, p. 71,^[6]

     He wished he were in a combatant service; he wanted to fight, fight.

Middle French

Verb

combatant (feminine singular combatante, masculine plural combatans, feminine plural combatantes)

1. present participle of combatre
2. (may be preceded by en, invariable) gerund of combatre

Romanian

Etymology

From French combattant.

Adjective

combatant m or n (feminine singular combatant?, masculine plural combatan?i, feminine and neuter plural combatante)

1. fighting

Declension

English

Alternative forms

• defendor, defendour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman defendour, from Old French defendeor

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??f?nd?(?)/
• Rhymes: -?nd?(?)

Noun

defender (plural defenders)

1. someone who defends people or property
2. (sports) one of the players whose primary task is to prevent the opposition from scoring
3. a fighter who seeks to repel an attack
4. (law, rare) a lawyer who represents defendants, especially a public defender; a defense attorney (US) or defence counsel (UK)
5. (Scotland, law) a defendant in a civil action

Translations

Anagrams

• fendered, redefend

Interlingua

Verb

defender

1. to defend

Conjugation

Ladino

Etymology

From Latin d?fend?, d?fendere.

Verb

defender (Latin spelling)

1. to prohibit

Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Portuguese defender, from Latin d?fendere, present active infinitive of d?fend?.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /d?.f?.?de?/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /de.f?.?de(?)/

Verb

defender (first-person singular present indicative defendo, past participle defendido)

1. to defend (repel an attack)

   Synonyms: (archaic) defensar, proteger

2. to defend (represent as a legal professional)
3. (rhetoric) to defend
4. to support (to back a cause, party etc.)

   Synonym: ser a favor de

5. (sports) to defend (to prevent the opponent from scoring)
6. (sports, intransitive) to play in defense
7. (higher education) to formally present a dissertation, thesis or project
8. first-person singular (eu) personal infinitive of defender
9. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) personal infinitive of defender
10. first-person singular (eu) future subjunctive of defender
11. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) future subjunctive of defender

Conjugation

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:defender.

Related terms

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin d?fendere, present active infinitive of d?fend?. Cognate with English defend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /defen?de?/, [d?e.f?n??d?e?]

Verb

defender (first-person singular present defiendo, first-person singular preterite defendí, past participle defendido)

1. to defend, to protect, to hold down (contra (“against”), de (“from”))

   Synonym: proteger

2. to stand up for, to stick up for
3. to uphold

4. to prohibit

   Synonym: prohibir

5. to claim
6. (reflexive) to fight back
7. (reflexive) to defend oneself, to protect oneself
8. (reflexive) to stand up for oneself, to stick up for oneself
9. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to fend off (+ de)
10. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to get by

Conjugation

Derived terms

• autodefenderse

Related terms

Further reading

• “defender” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.