Etymology Inherited from late Middle English combataunt, from Middle French combatant. By surface analysis, combat + -ant. Doublet of combattant.
1
A person engaged in combat, often armed.
Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.
Come hither, you that would be combatants: Henceforth I charge you, as you love our favour, Quite to forget this quarrel and the cause.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
4 more examples
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.1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 3, in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, volume 1, London: for the author, page 112:
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 […]1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
“[…] Don’t you realize that alcohol is an essential part of heroism? The combatant and the drunkard are brothers, you genius.”1992, Naguib Mahfouz, chapter 48, in William M. Hutchins, Angele Botros Samaan, transl., Sugar Street, New York: Anchor Books, published 1993, page 271:
The leading voices of the womanosphere are using a similar strategy. As Brittany Hugoboom put it in an op–ed for the rightwing outlet Quillette: “Conservatives will never win if they imagine themselves as combatants atop defensive battlements, hurling abuse on the mass media. We need to involve ourselves in the creation of pop culture.”2025 April 24, Anna Silman, “Now comes the ‘womanosphere’: the anti-feminist media telling women to be thin, fertile and Republican”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Etymology Inherited from late Middle English combataunt, from Middle French combatant. By surface analysis, combat + -ant. Doublet of combattant.
1
Contending; disposed to contend.
Their valours are not yet so combatant, Or truly antagonistick, as to fight;1641, Ben Jonson, The Magnetic Lady, New York: Henry Holt, published 1914, act III, scene 5, page 65:
2
Involving combat.
He wished he were in a combatant service; he wanted to fight, fight.1921, John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers, New York: Modern Library, published 1932, Part Two, Chapter 1, p. 71:
3
Alternative Alternative form of combattant (“in heraldry: in a fighting position”).
Or, two lions combatant gules, armed and langued (that is, claws and tongue) azure, is borne by the name of Wycombe; Azure , two lions combatant or, by the name of Carter; Azure , two lions combatant guardant argent, by […]1846, William Newton, Display of Heraldry, page 84: