different between enemy vs assailant

English

Alternative forms

• enemie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English enemy, enemye, enmy, borrowed from Old French enemi, anemi (Modern French ennemi), from Latin inim?cus, from in- (“not”) + am?cus (“friend”). Displaced Middle English feend (“enemy”), from Old English f?ond (“enemy”), which survived into Modern English as fiend, but with a different meaning.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n?mi/
• Hyphenation: en?e?my

Noun

enemy (plural enemies)

1. Someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else.

   Synonyms: foe, unfriend, adversary, nemesis, backfriend

   Antonyms: ally, friend

2. A hostile force or nation; a fighting member of such a force or nation.

   Synonyms: foe, adversary, nemesis

   Antonyms: ally, friend

3. Something harmful or threatening to another
4. (attributive) Of, by, relating to, or belonging to an enemy.

Derived terms

Related terms

• enmity
• inimical

Translations

See also

• nemesis

Verb

enemy (third-person singular simple present enemies, present participle enemying, simple past and past participle enemied)

1. To make an enemy of.

Anagrams

• Yemen, yemen

Old French

Noun

enemy m (oblique plural enemys, nominative singular enemys, nominative plural enemy)

1. Alternative form of enemi

Descendants

• ? English: enemy

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