different between disputant vs assailant

English

Etymology

dispute +? -ant

Pronunciation

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /d??spjut?nt/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??spju?.t?nt/

Noun

disputant (plural disputants)

1. A participant in a dispute.
   • 1893, Henry James, Collaboration [1]

     One of the liveliest scenes of the performance was the evening, last winter, on which I became aware that one of my compatriots – an American, my good friend Alfred Bonus – was engaged in a controversy somewhat acrimonious, on a literary subject, with Herman Heidenmauer, the young composer who had been playing to us divinely a short time before and whom I thought of neither as a disputant nor as an Englishman.

Adjective

disputant (comparative more disputant, superlative most disputant)

1. Disputing; engaged in controversy.

Catalan

Verb

disputant

1. present participle of disputar

French

Verb

disputant

1. present participle of disputer

Latin

Verb

disputant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of disput?

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